A preview of the emerging health care companies profiled in the current issue of Start-Up. This month's profile group, Computational Drug Discovery, features profiles of Libraria Inc., Plexus Vaccine Inc. and ReceptorBase Inc. Plus these Start-Ups across Health Care: Avalon Pharmaceuticals Inc., CeMines, Octagon Research Solutions Inc. and Renal Solutions Inc.

Libraria Inc. is using computational techniques to discover new small-molecule drugs that can be administered orally. Its proprietary technology enables the company and its partners to leverage known molecular structures, chemistry protocols, and bioactivity data to speed the chemistry phase of drug discovery by up to 50%.

Computational drug discovery companies promise to unite data from many of the disparate steps pharmaceutical companies go through these days, to enable more efficient lead identification, optimization, and testing.