# Key Points from #hplusroadmap IRC Discussion

• Researchers discussed automated chemical synthesis technologies, including the British "Dial-a-Molecule" project and Novartis-MIT's continuous pharmaceutical manufacturing system that reduced production time from 300 to 47 hours.

• Participants highlighted significant barriers to computational chemistry advancement, particularly the prohibitive licensing costs of chemical databases like Reaxys, which one user noted "will bleed you dry."

• The conversation referenced Chematica, a system developed over a decade that created a searchable network of approximately 6 million organic compounds connected by a similar number of reactions.

• Users shared information about LHASA (Logic and Heuristics Applied to Synthetic Analysis), an early system for suggesting chemical synthesis steps that was limited by database quality and algorithm effectiveness.

• The group discussed laboratory automation technologies, including Eli Lilly's "completely automated organic synthesis machine" and expressed interest in robots for automating tedious procedures like chromatographic columns.

• Heath shared resources on affordable FPGA development boards, with brief discussion distinguishing between FPGAs and CPLDs (Complex Programmable Logic Devices).

• The channel accessed multiple scientific papers through paperbot, including works on DNA sequencing development and Sanger's transition from protein to DNA sequencing methods.