Pharmacophore mapping and virtual screening techniques are discussed. Pharmacophore mapping involves defining the molecular features responsible for biological activity and aligning compounds. Key steps include identifying common binding elements, generating conformations, and determining 3D relationships between pharmacophore elements. Virtual screening then uses the pharmacophore model to filter large libraries of compounds and identify potential hits through techniques like flexible 3D searching and docking. Pharmacophore-based screening is a powerful initial filter that can greatly reduce compounds requiring more computationally expensive docking.