Screening strategy pursues photocatalytic couplings for drug discovery
High-throughput screening and flow-based scale-up combo identifies chemistry needed to functionalise drug fragments and obtain useful amounts of product
Scientists have coupled high-throughput and flow technology to identify new synthetic routes and reactions for use in drug discovery. The process uses liquid handling robots to run hundreds of reactions simultaneously, identifies successful transformations, and scales up the product by running the successful reactions in a continuous flow reactor. It represents the first time that a high-throughput-based workflow has been used to find a photoredox-mediated C–H functionalisation reaction.