Tripos, Inc.

David E Patterson

Richard D Cramer

Robert D Clark

Allan M Ferguson

The distribution of chemical compounds in high-dimensional molecular descriptor space can be viewed in two dimensions by applying the projection method of this invention. This method has particular usefulness for viewing the relationships of a large number of compounds such as found in a large scale HTS or virtual combinatorial library. After selecting a representative subset of the larger data set of comounds, initially components from the high-dimensional descriptor space are determined by PCA. In order to relax an NLM projection using the PCA components as a start, the stress function is modified to reflect a local horizon beyound which the separation of the compounds is not meaningfully measureable. The resulting two dimensional projections provide a clear insight into the distribution of the chemical compounds in the higher dimensional space.

Visualizing high dimensional descriptors of molecular structures

The problem of how to select out of a large chemically accessible universe molecules representative of the diversity of that universe is resolved by the discovery of a method to validate molecular structural descriptors. Using the validated descriptors, optimally diverse subsets can be selected. In addition, from the universe, molecules with characteristics similar to a selected molecule can be identified. The validated descriptors also enable the generation of a huge virtual library of potential product molecules which could be formed by combinatorial arrangement of structural variations and cores. In this virtual library it is possible to search billions of possible product compounds in relatively short time frames.

Further method of creating and rapidly searching a virtual library of potential molecules using validated molecular structural descriptors

The use of biological screening purposes of a subset (library) of a large combinatorially accessible chemical universe increases the efficiency of the screening process only if the subset contains members representative of the total diversity of the universe. In order to insure inclusion in the subset of molecules representing the total diversity of the universe under consideration, valid molecular descriptors which quantitatively reflect the diversity of the molecules in the universe are required. A unique validation method is used to examine both a new three dimensional steric metric and some prior art metrics. With this method, the relative usefulness/validity of individual metrics can be ascertained from their application to randomly selected literature data sets. By the appropriate application of validated metrics, the method of this invention selects a subset of a combinatorial accessible chemical universe such that the molecules of the subset are representative of all the diversity present in the universe and yet do not contain multiple members which represent the same diversity (oversample). The use of the neighborhood definition of a validated metric may also be used to combine (without oversampling the same diversity) any number of combinatorial screening libraries.

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St. Louis, MO, United States of America

David E Patterson