Volume 3 Issue 8, August 2007

Publications reporting results of small-molecule screens are becoming more common as academic researchers increasingly make use of high-throughput screening (HTS) facilities. However, no standards have been formally established for reporting small-molecule screening data, and often key information important for the evaluation and interpretation of results is omitted in published HTS protocols. Here, we propose concise guidelines for reporting small-molecule HTS data.

The chemical scaffolds from which screening libraries are built have strong influence on the libraries' utility for screening campaigns. Here we present analysis of the scaffold composition of several types of commercially available screening collections and compare those compositions to those of drugs and drug candidates.

The increasing availability of data related to genes, proteins and their modulation by small molecules has provided a vast amount of biological information leading to the emergence of systems biology and the broad use of simulation tools for data analysis. However, there is a critical need to develop cheminformatics tools that can integrate chemical knowledge with these biological databases and simulation approaches, with the goal of creating systems chemical biology.

A new division of The Scripps Research Institute that is dedicated to biomedical research and drug discovery is taking shape on the shores of southern Florida.

Assigning function to uncharacterized enzymes discovered through genome projects has provided a great challenge to the fields of informatics, enzymology and structural biology. Docking potential ligands into flexible models of protein structures and docking potential high-energy intermediates, rather than substrates, into known structures are two new computational approaches that have provided a much-needed boost to the field.

The physiological significance of thiaminase II has escaped our understanding for many years. The recent discovery of a new thiamine salvage pathway shows that this enzyme is involved in the regeneration of precursors for thiamine biosynthesis.

Chemical probes reveal Hsp90 to be a key molecule for the control of apoptosis in small-cell lung cancer—with important implications for Hsp90 biology and cancer treatment.

Sequencing of the genome of a newly isolated marine actinomycete has revealed the potential to make a gamut of interesting compounds with potential as therapeutic agents. Deep-sea environments may yield new chemical structures not found in microbes from traditional terrestrial habitats.