title: Natural products as probes in pharmaceutical research.
abstract: From the start of the pharmaceutical research natural products played a key role in drug discovery and development. Over time many discoveries of fundamental new biology were triggered by the unique biological activity of natural products. Unprecedented chemical structures, novel chemotypes, often pave the way to investigate new biology and to explore new pathways and targets. This review summarizes the recent results in the area with a focus on research done in the laboratories of Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research. We aim to put the technological advances in target identification techniques in the context to the current revival of phenotypic screening and the increasingly complex biological questions related to drug discovery.
authors.affiliation: Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, Novartis Campus, 4056, Basel, Switzerland. esther.schmitt@novartis.com.
authors.forename: Esther K
authors.initials: EK
authors.lastname: Schmitt
authors.affiliation: Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, Novartis Campus, 4056, Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hoepfner
authors.affiliation: Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, Novartis Campus, 4056, Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Krastel
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001688:Biological Products / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology*; D035843:Biomedical Research; D055808:Drug Discovery / Q000379:methods*; D004345:Drug Industry; D006801:Humans; D058990:Molecular Targeted Therapy; D010641:Phenotype
chemical_list: D001688:Biological Products
keywords: Antibiotic; Cancer; Chemical proteomics; Genetic screens; Malaria; Natural products; Target identification