Finding the needle in the haystack: why high-throughput screening is good for your health.
High-throughput screening is an essential component of the toolbox of modern technologies that improve speed and efficiency in contemporary cancer drug development. This is particularly important as we seek to exploit, for maximum therapeutic benefit, the large number of new molecular targets emerging from the Human Genome Project and cancer genomics. Screening of diverse collections of low molecular weight compounds plays a key role in providing chemical starting points for iterative optimisation by medicinal chemistry. Examples of successful drug discovery programmes based on high-throughput screening are described, and these offer potential in the treatment of breast cancer and other malignancies.
Aherne
G Wynne
GW
Cancer Research UK Centre for Cancer Therapeutics, The Institute of Cancer Research, 15 Cotswold Road, Sutton, Surrey SM2 5NG, UK.
McDonald
Edward
E
Workman
Paul
P
D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000302:isolation & purification; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000235:genetics; D002453:Cell Cycle / Q000187:drug effects; D020650:Combinatorial Chemistry Techniques; D015195:Drug Design; D004353:Drug Evaluation, Preclinical / Q000379:methods*; D004791:Enzyme Inhibitors / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000494:pharmacology; D005260:Female; D023281:Genomics; D006131:Growth Inhibitors / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000494:pharmacology; D016045:Human Genome Project; D006801:Humans; D015394:Molecular Structure; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000235:genetics; D047428:Protein Kinase Inhibitors; D016159:Tumor Suppressor Protein p53 / Q000819:agonists / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors
D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D004791:Enzyme Inhibitors; D006131:Growth Inhibitors; D047428:Protein Kinase Inhibitors; D016159:Tumor Suppressor Protein p53