D.9.1

D.9.1 Discuss the use of a compound library in drug design

A compound library is a collection of stored chemicals. Each chemical in the library will have corresponding information: purity, chemical structure, quantity and chemical properties, that will be stored in an electronic compound library database.

If a pharmaceutical chemist is in need of a chemical to perform a particular function, he or she can search the electronic compound library database. Any compounds that appear to have the required traits can be tested in the laboratory.

This eliminates the synthesizing and the individual evaluation in the laboratory of a large number of related compounds which is a time consuming and expensive process. Large numbers of related compounds can be created quickly.

As opposed to synthesizing and individually evaluating different compounds for biological properties, this approach allows money and time to be saved.