Small molecules have extensive untapped potential to benefit society, but access to this potential is too often restricted by limitations inherent to the highly customized approach that is currently used to synthesize this class of chemical matter. An alternative ‘building block approach’ — that is, generalized iterative assembly of interchangeable parts — has now proved to be a highly efficient and flexible method of constructing things ranging from skyscrapers and macromolecules to artificial intelligence algorithms. The structural redundancy found in many small molecules suggests that they possess a similar capacity for generalized building block-based construction. It is also encouraging that many customized iterative synthesis methods have been developed that already improve access to specific classes of small molecules. There has also been substantial recent progress towards the iterative assembly of many different types of small molecules, including complex natural products, pharmaceuticals, biological probes and materials, using common building blocks and coupling chemistry. Collectively, these advances suggest that a generalized building block approach for small-molecule synthesis may be within reach.

小分子具有造福社会的广泛未开发潜力，但利用这种潜力往往受到目前用于合成此类化学物质的高度定制方法固有的限制。另一种“构建块方法”——即可互换部件的广义迭代组装——现在已被证明是一种高效且灵活的方法，可以构建从摩天大楼、大分子到人工智能算法等各种事物。许多小分子中发现的结构冗余表明它们具有相似的基于通用构建块的构建能力。同样令人鼓舞的是，许多定制的迭代合成方法已经被开发出来，这些方法已经改善了特定类别小分子的获取。最近，使用通用构建模块和偶联化学迭代组装许多不同类型的小分子（包括复杂的天然产物、药物、生物探针和材料）也取得了实质性进展。总的来说，这些进展表明小分子合成的通用构建方法可能是可以实现的。