Rational design

Not to be confused with Intelligent design.

In chemical biology and biomolecular engineering, rational design is the strategy of creating new molecules with a certain functionality, based upon the ability to predict how the molecule's structure will affect its behavior through physical models. This can be done either from scratch or by making calculated variations on a known structure, and is usually contrasted with directed evolution. Applications of rational design include:

• Protein design
• Nucleic acid design
• Drug design
• Pathway design