The joint work of the Teams of Prof. Grzybowski and Prof. Młynarski in Nature

In the recently published article in Nature, the Team of Prof. Bartosz Grzybowski in cooperation with the Teams of Prof. Jacek Młynarski from the IOC PAS and Prof. Milan Mrksich from Northwestern describes a solution to one of the oldest chemistry challenges – teaching a computer to plan multistep organic syntheses. Despite the significant effort made by the most outstanding chemists of the 20th century (Corey, Ugi, Djerassi), these attempts have been mostly unsuccessful since the 1960s. It took approx. 20 years for the scientists from the IOC PAS to design a program called Chematica, which was used to plan syntheses. In their article in Nature, they describe the algorithmic basis that eventually allowed for a breakthrough as well as successful validation of computer-designed syntheses of the Dauricine, Tacamonidine, and the recently isolated Lammelodysidin A. Moreover, the results of the Turing test, which tests a computer’s ability to think like humans, were also discussed in relation to the Chematica platform. World-class experts in total synthesis have not been able to distinguish between machine-designed pathways and synthetic designs developed by experienced chemists. This work is a revolutionary example of using a computer for the creative planning of chemical synthesis.

Link to the article: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2855-y