title: Self-organizing maps in drug discovery: compound library design, scaffold-hopping, repurposing.
abstract: High-throughput screening campaigns are fuelled not only by corporate or "maximally diverse" compound collections, but increasingly accompanied by target- or bioactivity-focused selections of screening compounds. Computer-assisted library design methods aid in the compilation of focused molecule libraries. A prerequisite for application of any such computational approach is the definition of a reference set and a molecular similarity metric, based on which compound clustering and iterative virtual screening are performed. In this context the self-organizing map (SOM, Kohonen network) and variations thereof have found widespread application. SOMs cover such diverse fields of drug discovery as screening library design, scaffold-hopping, and repurposing. Here we present the concept of the SOM technique along with recent case studies. Advantages, limitations and potential future applications are critically discussed.
authors.affiliation: Schneider Consulting GbR, George-C.-Marshall Ring 33, D-61440 Oberursel, Germany.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Schneider
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tanrikulu
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Schneider
mesh_terms: D002626:Chemistry, Pharmaceutical; D003198:Computer Simulation; D016503:Drug Delivery Systems; D015195:Drug Design; D008024:Ligands
chemical_list: D008024:Ligands