News Picture Generic

Thinking Outside the Library: Cluster Synthesis of Diverse Molecules on a Single Robotic Platform

December 16, 2025
Featured Article

ChemRxiv

The development of a general autonomous platform for organic synthesis that enables faster, flexible and efficient delivery of target molecules is an attractive strategy for many fields such as drug discovery and material sciences. Traditionally, automated parallel synthesis relies on the synthesis of libraries of various sizes, sharing the same transformations and name reactions with defined reaction conditions. Herein, we report on the development of our platform and a paradigm shift in high throughput robotic synthesis: from mono-reaction type libraries to multi-reaction type clusters. This fundamentally distinct approach differs from the current strategies by clustering reactions based on their reaction conditions, defined as ranges of acceptable temperature and time by expert chemists. As a result, many different reactivities can be merged in a cluster. An algorithm has been developed to help chemists organize the workload in the minimum number of clusters taking into account the physical and chemical constraints of the platform. We applied this strategy to organize efficiently the synthesis of 135 molecules, using 27 different name reactions in only 6 clusters and 3 synthetic campaigns.

For details: 

Thinking Outside the Library: Cluster Synthesis of Diverse Molecules on a Single Robotic Platform

Franck Le Vaillant,∗a, Luidgi Gromat b‡, Clémentine Pescheteau a‡, Nicolas Ducrot b, Aurélien Demilly b, Jean-Christophe Meillon a, Nicolas Do Huu b, and Quentin Perron b

a) Iktos Robotics Laboratory, 25-27 avenue du Québec 91140 Villebon-sur-Yvette, France.
b) Iktos, 65 rue de Prony 75017 Paris, France
‡ These authors contributed equally to this work.

ChemRxiv
https://doi.org/10.26434/chemrxiv-2025-j8bsl

For more information about Chemspeed solutions:

Contact us to learn more about this exciting article:https://www.chemspeed.com/contact/

Other Recent News

Discover more news articles you might be interested in

Read more about Artificial intelligence-driven autonomous laboratory for accelerating chemical discovery
News Picture 1 1 V2
Jan
30

Artificial intelligence-driven autonomous laboratory for accelerating chemical discovery

Autonomous laboratories, also known as self-driving labs, have emerged as a powerful strategy to accelerate chemical discovery. By highly integrating different key parts including artificial intelligence (AI), robotic experimentation systems and automation technologies into a continuous closed-loop cycle, autonomous laboratories can efficiently conduct scientific experiments with minimal human intervention.

Read more about Stable acidic oxygen-evolving catalyst discovery through mixed accelerations
News Picture 1 1 V2
Featured
Jan
30

Stable acidic oxygen-evolving catalyst discovery through mixed accelerations

Ruthenium oxides (RuOx) are promising alternatives to iridium catalysts for the oxygen-evolution reaction in proton-exchange membrane water electrolysis but lack stability in acid. Alloying with other elements can improve stability and performance but enlarges the search space.

Read more about Experimental and kinetic study of the microwave-assisted catalytic conversion of glucose
News Picture 1 1 V2
Featured
Jan
30

Experimental and kinetic study of the microwave-assisted catalytic conversion of glucose

Microwave technology offers rapid, selective, and efficient heating, making it a valuable tool for process intensification. In this context, this study employed microwave energy for rapid reaction optimization and reliable kinetic analysis for the catalytic conversion of glucose. Dehydration (DeH) and retro-aldol condensation (RAC) are two main routes for the catalytic conversion of glucose into valuable platform chemicals such as levulinic acid, methyl lactate, and other byproducts.

© Chemspeed Technologies 2026