HTS in the new millennium: the role of pharmacology and flexibility

Over the past decade, high throughput screening (HTS) has become the focal point for discovery programs within the pharmaceutical industry. The role of this discipline has been and remains the rapid and efficient identification of lead chemical matter within chemical libraries for therapeutics development. Recent advances in molecular and computational biology, i.e., genomic sequencing and bioinformatics, have resulted in the announcement of publication of the first draft of the human genome. While much work remains before a complete and accurate genomic map will be available, there can be no doubt that the number of potential therapeutic intervention points will increase dramatically, thereby increasing the workload of early discovery groups. One current drug discovery paradigm integrates genomics, protein biosciences and HTS in establishing what the authors refer to as the "gene-to-screen" process. Adoption of the "gene-to-screen" paradigm results in a dramatic increase in the efficiency of the process of converting a novel gene coding for a putative enzymatic or receptor function into a robust and pharmacologically relevant high throughput screen. This article details aspects of the identification of lead chemical matter from HTS. Topics discussed include portfolio composition (molecular targets amenable to small molecule drug discovery), screening file content, assay formats and plating densities, and the impact of instrumentation on the ability of HTS to identify lead chemical matter.