Figure 2.

Fragment chemical microarray. Thousands of chemical fragments are synthesized and immobilized on microarrays, then coated with a thin layer of gold. After treating the chips with target proteins, a surface plasmon resonance (SPR)-based Plasmon Imager^® is used to record the mass change when soluble proteins bind immobilized chemicals. Wavelength shifts in SPR corresponding to the amount of protein binding to the chemical surface, creating protein–ligand affinity fingerprints. After SAR analysis, the first generation of drug-like compounds and analogs are synthesized and tested, and lead candidates will then be further optimized.