Computer aided drug design (CADD) has emerged as a major resource for the identification, calibration and estimation of the potentials of target drug candidates, says Dr VR Pediredddi, National Chemical Laboratory, Pune.

The process involves compilation of huge databases and retrieval of information based on the requirements of targeted drug molecule. For this purpose, vast number of automated systems have been designed and introduced to the chemists.

In this direction, Cambridge Structural Database (CSD) developed by Cambridge Cyrstallographic Database Centre at Cambridge University, UK is the collection of three-dimensional crystal structures of organic and organometallic compounds.

CSD could be regarded as a first combinatorial library of about two lakh crystal structures. The main advantage of CSD over other databases is its ability to perform searches on the information stored in it, using connectivity, while other databases are limited just for the bibliographical retrieval.

In the last few decades, with the increased awareness about safeguarding animals, it has become difficult to use the traditional methods of trials of possible drugs on animals but at the same time, demands are increasing for the identification of new drugs to treat several chronic diseases.