How to crack a SMILES: automatic crosschecked chemical structure resolution across multiple services using MoleculeResolver

Abstract

Accurate chemical structure resolution from textual identifiers such as names and CAS RN® is critical for computational modeling in chemistry and related fields. This paper introduces MoleculeResolver, an automated, robust Python-based tool designed to address inconsistencies and inaccuracies commonly encountered when converting chemical identifiers to canonical SMILES strings. MoleculeResolver systematically crosschecks structures retrieved from multiple reputable chemical databases, implements rigorous identifier plausibility checks, standardizes molecular structures, and intelligently selects the most accurate representation based on a unique resolution algorithm.

Benchmarks across diverse datasets confirm that MoleculeResolver significantly enhances precision, recall, and overall reliability compared to traditional single-source methods, proving its utility as a valuable resource for chemists, data scientists, and researchers engaged in high-quality molecular data analysis and predictive model development.