COMBINATORIAL CHEMISTRY: A REVIEW

Combinatorial chemistry is a new methodology by which we can simultaneously synthesize a number of possible compounds that could produce simultaneously a very large number of compounds, called libraries. Combinatorial chemistry involves the rapid synthesis or the computer simulation of a large number of different but often structurally related molecules or materials. Combinatorial chemistry is especially common in CADD (Computer aided drug design) and can be done online with web based software, such as Molinspiration. In the past, chemists have traditionally made one compound at a time. For example compound A would have been reacted with compound B to give product AB, which would have been isolated after reaction work up and purification through crystallization, distillation, or chromatography. In contrast to this approach, combinatorial chemistry offers the potential to make every combination of compound A1 to Am with compound B1 to Bn. Although combinatorial chemistry has only really been taken up by industry since the 1990s, its roots can be seen as far back as the 1960s when a researcher at Rockefeller University, Bruce Merrifield, started investigating the solid-state synthesis of peptides.