High-throughput, computer assisted, specific MetID. A revolution for drug discovery.

One of the key factors in drug discovery is related to the metabolic properties of the lead compound, which may influence the bioavailability of the drug, its therapeutic window, and unwanted side-effects of its metabolites. Therefore, it is of critical importance to enable the fast translation of the experimentally determined metabolic information into design knowledge. The elucidation of the metabolite structure is the most structurally rich and informative end-point in the available range of metabolic assays. A methodology is presented to partially automate the analysis of this experimental information, making the process more efficient. The computer assisted method helps in the chromatographic peak selection and the metabolite structure assignment, enabling automatic data comparison for qualitative applications (kinetic analysis, cross species comparison).