Reducing unintended secondary effects remains a major obstacle for researchers tasked with developing new treatments for chronic diseases. A major impediment to generating drugs without side-effects is that these compounds are not always specific to their biological targets. Lack of specificity can cause side-effects when the drug interacts with non-target molecules in a different biological pathway than the intended target. Published this month in Journal of Young Investigators, Kennedy et al. examine the binding of eight small molecules against α-glucosidase — a common drug target for noninsulin‐dependent diabetes mellitus (type II diabetes).