Overview The Search for Biologically Useful Chemical Space

Overview The Search for Biologically Useful Chemical Space 

Two wads diverged in a yellow wood And sorry I could not travel both 

Then took the other, as just as fair And having perhaps the better claim. 

The search for and use of biologically active chemicals by man dates at least to the dawn of Homo sapiens, and doubtless to his ancestors. One can speculate about why such early human societies used such agents. Likely, anything that could provide relief from the undoubted harshness and danger of life - described by the 17th century English philosopher Thomas Hobbes as, poor, nasty, brutish, and short - would be considered desirable. This search for biologically active chemicals continues today, albeit at a more sophisticated and rational level. 

This section of Principles of Medicinal Chemistry concerns itself primarily with the issues surrounding the exploration of chemical space, including the relationship between chemical and biological space, stereoselectivity of drug interaction, privileged structures, structure-function relationships, selectivity and non-selectivity of drug action 

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CHAPTER 24 Overview The Search for Biologically Useful Chemical Space... 

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