Molecular descriptors and chemical spaces

1 Molecular descriptors and chemical spaces. The majority of chemoinformatics methods depend on the generation of chemical reference spaces into which molecular data sets are projected and where analysis or design is carried out. The definition of chemical spaces critically depends on the use of computational descriptors of molecular structure, physical or chemical properties, or pharmacophores. Essentially, any comparison of molecular characteristics that goes beyond simple structural comparison requires the calculation of property values and the application 

For each molecule, calculation of n descriptor values produces an TV-dimensional coordinate vector in descriptor space that determines its position  

Connectivity and shape descriptors Surface area and volume 

Number of nitrogen atoms Number of aromatic atoms Number of rotatable bonds Number of hydrogen bond acceptors Sum of van der Waal surface areas of basic atoms 

Total positive partial charge Dipole moment from partial charges Kier and Hall molecular shape indices Solvent-accessible surface area 

---