Volume 22 Issue 4, April 2023

Move over degraders; proximity-inducing drugs that stabilize, phosphorylate and inhibit their targets are coming through.

Dysregulated protein phosphorylation is implicated in numerous human diseases, but targeting protein phosphates has traditionally proved challenging. Here, Stanford and Bottini provide an overview of protein phosphatase families, focusing on their roles in autoimmunity and tumour immunity. Emerging strategies to tackle these targets and agents in development are assessed.

Galectins are glycan-binding proteins with broad roles in physiological and pathological processes. Here, Rabinovich and colleagues discuss the therapeutic relevance of galectins to cancer and fibrosis and review the various strategies to target galectins and their progress in clinical trials.

Investigative toxicology tools and strategies are used in pharmaceutical companies to reduce safety-related attrition in drug development. This Perspective article summarizes the key goals of investigative toxicology, highlights current approaches and discusses selected emerging technologies that have the potential to improve the current safety-testing paradigm.