Table of Contents

July/August 2000
Vol. 3, No. 6

FEATURES
28	Building chirality from the ground up Ray McCague Researchers typically work with isomer mixtures to save time and resources, with the idea that the most appropriate isomer can be identified later during development-an approach that is particularly evident in combinatorial chemistry. This strategy forgoes any knowledge that might be gleaned from topological interactions between a potential drug entity and its target. There is a significant potential for competitive advantage in having ready access to multifunctional single-isomer "scaffolds"-chiral starting materials for combinatorial synthesis.
36	Sorting out combinatorial chaos Nicholas Sleep As combinatorial chemistry increases the size of a company's main compound library, the complexity of managing these libraries increases as well. But for the library to remain useful to the R&D process, it needs to be accessible. Not only is it essential to manage the repository to physically locate and handle the compounds, but it is also vital to maintain detailed records of sample use and data from previous assays, while conserving stocks by restricting the use of scarce compounds.
47	Chasing a cure for the common cold Christie Aschwanden Plenty of drugs targeting the body's response to cold viruses are already on the shelves-drugs such as antihistamines, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories, and decongestants-but even better drugs may be on the horizon as scientists identify new inflammatory mediators involved in the body's reaction to colds.
57	Early detection of cervical cancer Robert J. Thomas The need to identify cervical cancer in its early stages has driven researchers to focus on the underlying cause of the disease and how it can be detected at the molecular level. This research has produced overwhelming evidence that virtually all cases of cervical cancer are caused by the human papilloma virus (HPV), making it perhaps the first cancer to be recognized as virally induced. Enormous strides have been made in the HPV-cervical cancer area, which have produced an accurate and reliable molecular-based DNA test for the virus. This work should lead to effective therapeutics and eventually a vaccine against the disease