Adapted from a release by the University of Notre Dame.

The National Science Foundation’s Center for Computer-Assisted Synthesis at the University of Notre Dame, with U distinguished professor of chemistry Matthew Sigman as a co-principal investigator, has been named one of only seven Phase II National Science Foundation Centers for Chemical Innovation (CCI) in the nation, with $20 million of funding over five years.

Sigman’s research group has been a part of the center since Phase I, which included development of the Kraken library of organic compounds.

The center, abbreviated as C-CAS, “helps chemists focus on which molecules should be made, rather than on how to make them,” according to a University of Notre Dame press release. “By reducing the time and resources needed to design and optimize synthetic routes, the tools and protocols developed in C-CAS provide data-driven approaches to make synthetic chemistry more predictable and efficient because less time is spent on trial-and-error approaches. The tools developed by C-CAS are then shared with the research community through open-source clearinghouses.”

Read the full release about C-CAS’ Phase II award here.