Leeds researchers reshape the future of drug...( Scientists in Leeds have devised a n...),Health

Scientists in Leeds have devised a new way to create the next generation of man-made molecules in a breakthrough that could revolutionise drug development.

Creating new drugs to combat disease and illness requires the completion of a complex 3D jigsaw. The shape of the drug must be right to allow it to bind to a specific disease-related protein and to work effectively, and this shape is determined by the core framework of the molecule.

Now a team from the Astbury Centre for Structural Molecular Biology at the University of Leeds has developed a new approach which allows the creation of molecules with an extraordinarily wide range of molecular frameworks and, hence, shapes. The new molecules are likely to have a wide range of biological functions, which means they could be valuable starting points for the discovery of new drugs.

Says lead researcher Professor Adam Nelson of the University's School of Chemistry: "Nature has created hundreds of thousands of molecules that have different frameworks and biological purposes, but in the global pursuit of new drugs, chemists from around the world are racing to create new molecules with functions not seen in nature."

The newly created molecules are being shared with colleagues in the Faculties of Biological Sciences and Medicine and Health to see if specific new molecular frameworks match the requirements of their own research.

Of the 30 million or so synthetic molecules made throughout the history of organic chemistry, many are based on an extremely small number of core frameworks, with the main differences being the groups attached at the periphery. "Making collections of similar molecules is great for optimising a biological property," says Professor Nelson, "but to put it simply, if researchers need a cube-shaped molecule to target a particular protein, they may well find that they can only choose from libraries stocked with millions of sphere-shaped ones."

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