Automated synthesis: new tools for the organic chemist.

Routine automation of organic chemistry had proved an elusive goal until the arrival of combinatorial chemistry and the economic pressures of increased drug discovery throughput. Now, several approaches have been used to automate chemical synthesis, resulting in a range of new tools, both large and small, to support the process of compound production. The availability of these tools to the organic chemist heralds the change from the traditional 'hand-crafted' philosophy to a more mechanized view of compound synthesis in drug discovery groups.