Accessible high-throughput experimentation from startup to scale

High-throughput experimentation (HTE) is a powerful tool in chemistry, allowing exploration of a wide range of reaction conditions, substrates, and other variables and generating datasets of use in applying machine learning methods to chemical prediction. But HTE can sometimes be viewed as inaccessible to the academic chemist, while also presenting unique challenges in data analysis and management. In this panel, Tim Cernak, Dani Schultz, Jacob Janey, and Matthew Gaunt will discuss the myths surrounding HTE (7:52), the challenges and benefits of employing it in academia and industry (22:32), how to get started with HTE (36:36), and the future of the field (44:33). Tim Cernak is an Assistant Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where the Cernak Lab is exploring an interface of chemical synthesis and data science. Prior to the University of Michigan, Tim was a member of the Medicinal Chemistry team at Merck Sharp & Dohme. Dani Schultz is the Director of the Discovery Process Chemistry Group at Merck. During her time at Merck, she has been involved in the development of synthetic routes for drug candidates spanning HIV and oncology and has utilized HTE and photochemistry to address the synthetic challenges that occur during pharmaceutical development. Jacob Janey is the Senior Director of Scientific Computing at Vertex Pharmaceuticals. Prior to this, Jake worked at Merck and later led the Chemical Process Development Technology Group at Bristol-Meyers Squibb. His work has included developing manufacturing routes using robotics, machine learning, HTE, and catalysis as well as data stewardship. Matthew Gaunt is the Yusuf Hamied 1702 Chair of Chemistry at the University of Cambridge. His research focuses on the development of new chemical reactivity enabled by catalysts, including metal-catalyzed C–H bond activation, photoredox catalysis, selective chemical modification of biomolecules, and high-throughput synthesis.