Combinatorial synthesis is a technique used to create a large number of related chemical compounds for comparison. Advances in computer technology have enabled chemists to rapidly create combinatorial libraries with millions of compounds. Pharmaceutical companies are the main users of this technique, allowing for faster drug discovery. Other fields of chemistry can also use combinatorial synthesis, and it is expected to boost research in the 21st century.
Combinatorial synthesis is a technique used by chemists to create a large number of related or similar chemical compounds for the purpose of comparing them. By compiling data on such a group of compounds, called a combinatorial library, a chemist can then use this data to select specific compounds for further research. Much of this type of work is done virtually, using sophisticated software, which allows chemists to rapidly accumulate information about every possible compound that can be created with a desired base or set of components or molecules. Promising compounds can then be selected and synthesized for laboratory testing.
Advances in computer technology have greatly advanced combinatorial synthesis techniques and have enabled chemists to rapidly create combinatorial libraries with very large numbers of similar but distinct compounds. Some databases of this type can contain millions of different compounds. The idea of combinatorial synthesis was first developed in the second half of the 20th century, but became a widely used tool in the 1920s as the computing power available to researchers rapidly advanced.
Pharmaceutical companies are one of the main users of this technique, which allows potentially useful drugs to be discovered and selected for early stages of testing at a much faster rate than was previously possible. Using sophisticated software, researchers are able to synthesize virtually entire families of compounds in seconds that would otherwise take years if done in the laboratory. This software can also help them select certain compounds for further testing and synthesis under real-life conditions. In this way, many new drugs can be developed and introduced for use much faster than would otherwise be possible.
Other fields of chemistry can also use the principles of combinatorial synthesis. Researchers in many academic and industrial fields use this technique. The process can be used for the development of new polymers, petroleum products and insecticides. Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley have used combinatorial synthesis to develop an entire family of metal compounds called magnetoreactive compounds. These compounds have the property of varying conductivity when subjected to certain magnetic fields.
This technique is still relatively new and will no doubt give a major boost to research in a number of areas in the 21st century. Almost any field that relies in some way on chemistry for the development of new compounds can benefit from combinatorial synthesis. A chemist or researcher can use software to help find compounds with desired characteristics or properties in a fraction of the time it takes to perform the same search by other methods.
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