MedChem Manta
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MedChem Manta
Learn to dive deep with chemists.
Start at the surface
Build your medicinal chemistry knowledge with flashcards and spaced repetition, privately, on your own device.
Begin the descent250 m · Eyes adjust
Learn to read a structure like a medicinal chemist.
When a medicinal chemist looks at a compound, they immediately start discerning which features may drive potency and which are for surviving metabolism. To develop that instinct, you need to see those features enough. This is where those patterns are introduced.
Recognition, not recall
Every question shows you a structure and asks what you can see in it.
Every claim has a source
Primary literature, reference texts, and ChEMBL are cited throughout.
Chemistry on your device
RDKit draws every structure and finds every substructure match locally.
No account, nothing collected
No sign-up and no server. The app records nothing about you, and your progress moves only in a file you export.
450 m · Curated specimens
More than 500 cards, and every one of them cited.
Three libraries that cross-reference each other, plus more than 50 concept cards on PK, PD, assays, and design rules. A fragment names the drugs that carry it; a drug names the fragments it is built from; both name what metabolism will do to it.
Fragments
150+
Functional groups, heteroaromatics, saturated rings, and warheads: what each one buys you, and what it costs you.
5-ring heteroaromatic
1,2,3-Triazole
HBD / HBA1 / 2
TPSA30.68 Ų
Drugs
230+
Target, mechanism, and approval year, plus the fragments the molecule carries, each linked back to its own card.
COX inhibitor · 1955
Acetaminophen
TargetCyclooxygenase
FragmentsAmide · Phenol
Metabolites
70+
The endogenous shapes transporters and enzymes know (and what your compound might be mistaken for).
Neurotransmitter
Acetylcholine
Charge, pH 7.4+1, permanent
Cleared byAChE
Placeholder — library cards
750 m · Mimicry
Bioisosteres, and the rationale behind each one.
A good substitution keeps what a group was doing well for you and drops what it was costing. Learning to propose those swaps (and to price them honestly!) is the difference between reading a structure and reasoning about one.
Carboxylic acid → tetrazole.
- Similar acidity (pKa ~4.5–4.9) and similar lipophilicity.
- Worse passive permeability and +2 heavy atoms.
- No carbonyl carbon, so no acyl glucuronide (N-glucuronidated instead).
- Losartan, irbesartan, and candesartan all took this trade.
1000 m · The daily dive
One dive a day, about fifteen minutes deep.
FSRS — the Free Spaced Repetition Scheduler — schedules every card by how well you actually knew it, so the ones you keep missing keep coming back and the ones you have down pat get out of the way.
Install it
One download. It works on a plane, in a basement, and on the subway.
Pick a deck
Fragments, drugs, metabolites, concepts — or a mixed session the app builds for you.
Quiz yourself
Identify the fragment. Spot the liability. Choose the swap. Estimate the property.
See your progress
Mastery is tracked per category, so you can see which corner you have been avoiding.
1100 m · Watertight design
There is nothing down here to leak.
Your progress lives in your own device's storage, and the only way it moves is a file you export yourself.
In the app
- No account
- No server
- No analytics
- No network calls
- No tracking
This website counts visits without cookies, so we know roughly how many people stop by. The app itself sends nothing anywhere.
1200 m · Deep questions
Do I need a chemistry degree?
No. MedChem Manta assumes you can read a structure and know what a protein is. It does not assume you have ever run a reaction.
Does this replace a medicinal chemist?
Not at all! MedChem Manta is built for non-chemists who want to think like their med chem colleagues and communicate with them more clearly. It also works as a learning tool for new chemists or a refresher for experienced ones.
Where does the content come from?
All data are authored against cited sources (primary literature, reference texts, and ChEMBL for the drug set). Nothing is guessed.
Why a manta?
Oceanic mantas feed by filtering an enormous amount of water for a small, specific catch, and they range past 1,200 m (where this page ends) to find it. Pattern recognition in medicinal chemistry is the same job: a lot of deep diving to snag a few building blocks worth bringing back.