Catalyst predictor shows drug manufacturing promise

Chemists in UK, Sweden and the US have shown that their easy-to-use tool can quickly predict which catalysts will selectively produce one of two possible enantiomer forms of molecules. The tool, CatVS, virtually screens substrate and ligand libraries within hours, says Olaf Wiest from the University of Notre Dame, US. ‘All they need to do is plug the molecule into a website,’ explains Wiest. ‘It’s accurate and it’s predictive and it’s fast.’