Machine-designed natural product syntheses pass ‘Turing test’ for chemistry

By Patrick Hughes2020-11-11T14:30:00

An image showing the automatic synthesis planning over large networks of possible reactions

Source: © Barbara Mikulak-Klucznik et al/Springer Nature Limited 2020

Software updates allow Chematica to design sophisticated synthetic pathways, planning each step four or five moves ahead

By tweaking their organic synthesis software, Chematica, the team behind the program has shown for the first time that a machine is capable of planning multi-step syntheses for complex natural products. Three of the syntheses were experimentally validated in the lab, and a ‘Turing test’ for chemistry showed that the machine’s routes were largely indistinguishable from those designed by humans chemists.