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    Geneious Luma

    Accelerated antibody discovery for sequence analysis, construct design, and lab execution—integrating the power of Geneious Prime and Geneious Biologics with Luma’s adaptive workflows.

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Dotmatics
Request Demo
  • Platform

    Scientific Intelligence Platform

    AI-powered data management and workflow automation for multimodal scientific discovery

    Learn More

    Capabilities

    Adaptive Workflows

    Customize, automate, and scale your lab workflows

    Artificial Intelligence

    Leverage AI and ML to accurately predict scientific outcomes

    Material & Ontology Management

    Classify materials and manage entities with full traceability

    Luma Products

    Geneious Luma

    Accelerated antibody discovery for sequence analysis, construct design, and lab execution—integrating the power of Geneious Prime and Geneious Biologics with Luma’s adaptive workflows.

    Lab Connect

    Automated lab data ingestion and modeling—connect instruments, structure scientific data, and streamline lab operations with seamless integration.

  • Solutions

    The State of Chemicals & Materials

    Uncover key trends shaping the chemicals and materials industry

    Read More

    Solutions

    Antibody & Protein Engineering

    Integrated registration, lab workflow and data management

    Flow Cytometry

    Automated flow data processing and auto-gating

    Industry

    Biology Discovery

    Chemistry R&D

    Chemicals and Materials

  • Products

    R&D Software for Scientists

    Review our comprehensive portfolio of products driving scientific breakthroughs for R&D innovation and collaboration.

    Explore All

    BIOINFORMATICS

    SnapGene

    Geneious Prime

    Geneious Biologics

    CHEMINFORMATICS

    Vortex

    DATA ANALYSIS & VISUALIZATION

    Prism

    ELN

    ELN & Data Discovery Platform

    FLOW CYTOMETRY

    OMIQ

    FCS Express

    MULTIMODAL SCIENCE

    Scientific Intelligence Platform

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    Protein Metrics

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Home pageFAQ Center

How are small molecule drugs developed?

How are small molecule drugs developed?

Small molecule drugs are organic compounds that affect a variety of molecular pathways, primarily by targeting key proteins. Such compounds have a low molecular weight, allowing them to easily penetrate cells. Small drugs are developed from leads that derive from rational drug design or isolated from nature. 

The discovery of small molecule drugs is a complex process that requires interdisciplinary expertise. Small molecules can be obtained through:

  • Rational drug design or the development of medications based on the study of the structure and function of target molecules. This is a methodological approach rather than a brute force approach conducted through a high volume of tests and experiments.

  • Isolated from natural sources, where a multidisciplinary approach is taken by using natural sources as pharmacological leads against many different diseases.

  • Phenotypic screening using cell-based assays. These assays measure a phenotype in physiological systems, which includes all preclinical assays formats using physiological systems. 

  • Target-based drug discovery, which involves target identification and validation, assay development, hit identification, hit to lead, lead optimization, and candidate selection and development.

What are small molecules used for? 

Small molecules have enormous biological and medicinal applications, most importantly being their potential as novel cancer therapies. Small molecules are one category of drugs that are defined by their production by chemical synthesis. Some examples include:

  • Aspirin

  • Felbamate

  • Varenicline

Small molecules are typically between 0.1 and 1 kDa in size and have relatively simple structures that do not trigger an immune response. One such key area for their application includes the identification and development of molecular entities capable of targeting RNA, offering almost endless biochemical applications such as: 

  • Regulation of polymerase reactions

  • Viral infectivity

  • Gene expression and storage


Dotmatics small molecule discovery software can help transform small molecule discovery by making your chemistry flow.

How are small molecule drugs developed

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