 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (January 2019) |
In chemical biology and biomolecular engineering, rational design (RD) is an umbrella term which invites the strategy of creating new molecules with a certain functionality, based upon the ability to predict how the molecule's structure (specifically derived from motifs) will affect its behavior through physical models. This can be done either from scratch or by making calculated variations on a known structure, and usually complements directed evolution.