Mobile apps for chemistry in the world of drug discovery

Mobile hardware and software technology continues to evolve very rapidly and presents drug discovery scientists with new platforms for accessing data and performing data analysis. Smartphones and tablet computers can now be used to perform many of the operations previously addressed by laptops or desktop computers. Although the smaller screen sizes and requirements for touch-screen manipulation can present user-interface design challenges, especially with chemistry-related applications, these limitations are driving innovative solutions. In this early review of the topic, we collectively present our diverse experiences as software developer, chemistry database expert and naïve user, in terms of what mobile platforms could provide to the drug discovery chemist in the way of applications in the future as this disruptive technology takes off.