Software builds "library" of millions of small,
carbon-based molecules chemists might synthesize.
Drug developers may have a new tool to search for more effective
medications and new materials.
It's a computer algorithm that can model and catalogue the
entire set of lightweight, carbon-containing molecules that chemists could
feasibly create in a lab.
The small-molecule universe has more than 10^60 (that's 1
with 60 zeroes after it) chemical structures. Duke chemist David Beratan said
that many of the world's problems have molecular solutions in this chemical
space, whether it’s a cure for disease or a new material to capture sunlight.