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Chemistry

While biology has taken the lead in leveraging large-scale open data and robotics, chemistry still has significant untapped potential. Biology’s early adoption of these approaches has accelerated discoveries and streamlined workflows, demonstrating that similar transformations in chemistry could revolutionize the field. By embracing open data practices and integrating robotics into high-throughput synthesis and experimentation, chemists can increase reproducibility and efficiency.

R&D Gaps (7)

Limited ability to identify molecular structures through spectroscopy

Chemistry
Most molecular structure determination methods lose critical information, and solving the inverse problem remains challenging. This limits our ability to accurately reconstruct molecular structures from spectral data.
Chemistry
23

In-Silico Molecular Simulation Is Slow and Kludgy

Chemistry
In-silico molecular simulation has not received the necessary push, despite the promise of machine learning-based surrogate models. Moreover, advancements in quantum chemistry—both AI accelerated and quantum/ASIC-enabled—remain underexploited.
Chemistry
24

Inability to Image Materials Atom by Atom

Chemistry
Many current imaging techniques lack the resolution to image materials on an atomic scale, limiting our understanding of material properties at the most fundamental level.
Chemistry
25

Limited Understanding of the Chemical Reaction Space

Chemistry
Our overall knowledge of the chemical reaction space, including the catalysts that drive these reactions, is still rudimentary. We also lack detailed the large materials synthesis and processing datasets needed to enable highly predictive models.
Chemistry
26

We Don’t Have Easy Programmable Synthesis of Bio Polymers Other Than Nucleic Acids

Chemistry
While long-chain nucleic acid synthesis is advancing rapidly, the programmable synthesis of other polymers remains underdeveloped, limiting our capacity to design and produce diverse synthetic polymers.
Chemistry
27

We Can’t Yet Replicate Animal Olfaction Synthetically as a Sensing and Classification Modality

Chemistry
We currently lack a comprehensive model explaining how biological systems decode and classify chemical signals through olfaction. Understanding this process is critical for applications ranging from flavor science to disease diagnostics to understanding and harnessing animal communication.
Chemistry
28

Manual and Laborious Nature of Chemical Synthesis

Chemistry
Chemical synthesis remains largely manual, limiting throughput and reproducibility. The field requires robust automation to accelerate discovery and production of new molecules.
Chemistry
29