[Orb Pilot Scale up Reactor: Image from Syrris]
Flow chemistry techniques are increasingly being used in drug discovery to provide cost-effective access to a wide range of structurally diverse small molecule analogs, as well as access to previously underused or inaccessible chemistries. There are several ways that this powerful technique can be used to increase structural diversity when building candidate molecules, including linear progression from diverse starting materials, multicomponent reactions around core structural motifs, synthesis of uncommon low diversity starting material sub-sets, and convergent synthesis approaches. The diversity of the starting components is a key consideration when deciding the most suitable strategy for each specific application, but the development of automated, modular flow chemistry systems has made all these approaches far easier to achieve. Here we outline the various methods and…From Silicon Valley to the lab of tomorrow: Synfini’s leap to large chemistry models
Conceptual visualization of a molecular structure, not representative of a specific molecule. [Image courtesy of Adobe Stock]
During the COVID-19 pandemic in late 2020, the storied Silicon Valley institution SRI International secured a $4.3 million DARPA contract to develop a tool for generating therapeutic small molecules to combat biological threats. Not just known for innovations like the computer mouse and Siri, SRI International is also responsible for Synfini, a multimodal chemistry model akin to large language models like ChatGPT. In September 2023, the company spun out Synfini as an independent entity.“The core group and project started about seven years ago at SRI International, and began as part of the DARPA Make-It program,” said Peter Madrid, co-founder and head of scientific development at Synfini. DARPA’s Make-It initiative aimed to automate small molecule discovery and synthesis. Thanks to the su…