ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Conformation–activity relationship

Okay kiddo, you know how sometimes you have to take medicine when you get sick? And sometimes, even though all the pills look the same, some work better than others? Well, scientists want to figure out why some pills work better than others and what makes them work in the first place.

One thing they look at is the shape of the medicine. Just like some puzzle pieces fit together better than others, some medicines fit better in your body than others. Scientists call this the "conformation" of the medicine, which is just a fancy word for its shape.

Now, let's say we have two different medicines that are supposed to do the same thing, like help you feel better when you have a headache. If we look closely at the shape of the two medicines, we might notice that one is a little different than the other. Scientists can figure out which shape works better by testing how well each medicine works in the body.

This is called the "activity" of the medicine, which is just another fancy word for what the medicine does in your body.

So basically, scientists study the conformation-activity relationship to figure out how the shape of a medicine affects how well it works in the body. They want to create medicines that fit together perfectly with our bodies and make us feel better faster.