Editing Chemical database (section)

=== Chemical structures ===
[[Chemical structure]]s are traditionally represented using lines indicating [[chemical bonds]] between [[atoms]] and drawn on paper (2D [[structural formula]]e). While these are ideal visual representations for the [[chemist]], they are unsuitable for computational use and especially for [[search algorithm|search]] and [[computer storage|storage]]. Small molecules (also called [[ligands]] in drug design applications), are usually represented using lists of atoms and their connections. Large molecules such as proteins are however more compactly represented using the sequences of their amino acid building blocks. Radioactive isotopes are also represented, which is an important attribute for some applications. Large chemical databases for structures are expected to handle the storage and searching of information on millions of molecules taking [[terabytes]] of physical memory.<ref name=Hoffmann2019>{{cite journal |last1=Hoffmann |first1=Torsten |last2=Gastreich |first2=Marcus |title=The next level in chemical space navigation: going far beyond enumerable compound libraries |journal=Drug Discovery Today |volume=24 |issue=5 |date=2019 |doi=10.1016/j.drudis.2019.02.013 |doi-access=free |pages=1148–1156|pmid=30851414 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1038/s41586-023-05905-z |doi-access=free |title=Computational approaches streamlining drug discovery |date=2023 |last1=Sadybekov |first1=Anastasiia V. |last2=Katritch |first2=Vsevolod |journal=Nature |volume=616 |issue=7958 |pages=673–685 |pmid=37100941 |bibcode=2023Natur.616..673S }}</ref>