Small molecules

What are small molecules? We best know what they are not - Nature's DNA, RNA and protein macromolecules residing within their cellular contexts. Cells make small molecules - naturally occurring small molecules - but chemical biologists in the laboratory using, for example, DNA template-mediated, and target- and diversity-oriented organic synthesis, peptide and carbohydrate synthesis, and enzyme-mediated synthesis, also make them. Chemical biologists make both small and large "small molecules". They make them in tubes and cells, on glass surfaces, in monolayers, and even on phage viruses, and they use them to illuminate the principles that underlie life.

The above structures are a representative grouping from a collection of over 6000 diversity-oriented synthesis compounds. This particular collection is currently being screened as part of the Forma Project, a global comparison of DOS molecules to other sources (commercial libraries, natural products, etc.) that aims to shed light on the role(s) of small-molecule structure (shape, flexibility, etc.) and compound origins in the outcomes of small-molecule screens.