The virtual patient

摘要

IN pages past, thisnmagazine hasndescribed thenmyriad wonders of the con-nstruction of virtual proteinsnbased on gene and proteinnsequence alignments and thenscreening of virtual compoundsnagainst a database of drug tar-ngets. But as is so often thencase in drug development,nmost of these virtual com-npounds fail to achieve theirnlofty goals when synthesizednand exposed to the harshnessnof the real world and the com-nplexity of the human body