deCode chemistry & biostructures, the contract drug discovery subsidiary of deCodeGenetics Inc., has introduced the Fragments of Life library consisting of more than 800 small molecules for fragment-based crystallographic screening. The library is intended to serve as an additional tool to enhance deCode's contract drug discovery services by providing a novel starting point for lead discovery and inhibitor development. 

The fragments in the library have been selected for pharmaceutical properties from conserved molecules of life, stable metabolites, known drug building blocks and fragments thereof, including synthetic intermediates that have evolved from deCode's chemistry labs over the past 15 years. 

The concept guiding the development of the Fragments of Life library is that proteins have evolved to bind small molecules (metabolites) and other proteins within the cell.  Metabolite molecules have high information content per atom, are small (<300 Da) and are water soluble.  A selection of molecules that can be found in living cells (metabolic intermediates, amino acids, etc.) forms the core of the Fragments of Life library.  Additional compounds were added to the library following a computer search of the Available Chemicals Directory which selected molecules that shared key physical properties (molecular weight, total polar surface area, cLogP, etc.) with the metabolites.