Impact of Diversity on Library Design

The design strategies employed to improve combinatorial chemistry have evolved considerably since the early days of peptide and peptidomimetic libraries. The main concern early was on the availability of suitable synthetic methods that could be applied to the synthesis of libraries of small molecules however, this early obstacle has been intensively addressed and at this point can be considered overcome (for examples of new methodology developed for library production see Ref 21). With the ability in hand to prepare many different types of molecules in a variety of formats, the current challenge is to decide what compounds to make. As a consequence, much attention is now focused on the definition and analysis of chemical diversity. 

The term chemical diversity is used collectively to describe structural (scaffold) or functionality differences within a collection of compounds. There are numerous scientific publications and reviews on methods for understanding chemical diversity and its application to drug discovery. 

2 Diversity-Oriented Synthesis in Prospecting Library Design 

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