Lecture Overview

The modern drug discovery process integrates our deepest understanding of the molecular basis for disease with fundamental understanding of how potential drug molecules interact with specific disease targets and the whole organism. These two lectures are intended to give a broad and general introduction to the drug discovery process. Part I focuses on the early stages of drug discovery. We describe the basic stages of the drug discovery process, beginning with how disease targets are identified.

We then take you into the laboratory to show you how a popular approach, high throughput screening, is used to identify! compounds that can engage the molecular target or pathway of interest. Part II focuses on the later stages of the drug discovery process. After the identification of the first hit compounds, iterative rounds of chemistry, biochemistry, cell biology, pharmacology, and toxicology are used to progressively build and polish compounds to make them ready for clinical trials. The adventure of drug discovery represents one of the most fascinating and beneficial pursuits in science.

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