Patent ID: 6904423

Claim:
A method for screening a set of molecules, in order to assist in identifying sets of molecular features that are likely to correlate with specified activity, each molecule having a feature characteristic and an activity characteristic, the method comprising, in combination: (a) with respect to the molecules: (i) defining groups of the molecules based on similarity of the feature characteristics of the molecules, (ii) selecting one or more of the groups defined in the preceding step based on the activity characteristics of the molecules in the groups, (iii) for each group selected in the preceding step identifying a feature set common to all molecules in the group, and (iv) for each feature set identified in the preceding step, (A) selecting from the molecules a number of molecules that exhibit the feature set, (B) establishing a new set of molecules consisting of the number of molecules, (C) deciding whether to recursively repeat the method with respect to the new set of molecules, and, if so, (D) repeating steps (i)-(iv) with respect to the new set of molecules; and (b) providing a description of at least one new set of molecules established in step (iv), the description including a first portion indicating the feature set for which the new set of molecules was established and a second portion indicating the activity characteristics of the molecules in the new set of molecules, whereby the first and second portions may cooperatively establish a correlation between molecular features and molecular activity.