Scientists create new way to screen libraries of 10 million or more compounds
Tuesday, February 2, 2010 - 12:35
in Biology & Nature
The search for new drug compounds is probably worse than looking for a needle in a haystack because scientists are limited in the size of the haystacks they can rummage through -- time and money make it virtually impossible to screen or search through super-large libraries of potential compounds. This is a serious problem, because there is enormous interest in identifying synthetic molecules that bind to proteins for applications in drug discovery, biology and proteomics, and larger libraries should mean higher odds of success.