Medicinal chemistry can be like a game of whack-a-mole: tweak a compound to address one liability, and another problem pops up. Drug hunters have learned to stay well clear of programme killers — such as cardiotoxic inhibition of the hERG ion channel — and do their best to address other issues as they arise. But they don’t have a full view of the playing board, and so have to advance by trial and error. Enter the avoid-ome project, an open-science initiative aimed at systematically mapping out the interactions between small molecules and the problematic targets that drive absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion and toxicity (ADMET) problems.
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Interviewed by Asher Mullard
The interview was edited for length and clarity.
