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The why and how of phenotypic small-molecule screens

Small-molecule phenotypic screening has high potential in the discovery of new chemical probes and new biological small-molecule targets. This commentary will discuss the basic principles underlying the design of phenotypic screens and propose some guidelines to facilitate the discovery of small molecules from phenotypic screens.

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Acknowledgements

I thank C. Shamu (Institute of Chemistry and Cell Biology–Longwood, Harvard Medical School), M. Houslay (King's College London) and members of my laboratory for helpful discussions and comments on the manuscript. Research in my laboratory is funded by US National Institutes of Health grant R01 GM082834, a Human Frontier Science Program Young Investigator Award, Marie Curie Career Integration Grant no. 304137 and European Research Council Starting Grant 306659.

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Correspondence to Ulrike S Eggert.

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Eggert, U. The why and how of phenotypic small-molecule screens. Nat Chem Biol 9, 206–209 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchembio.1206

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