Target identification, drug discovery genes

Stephen L. Madden, Clarence J. Wang and Greg Landes, Serial analysis of gene expression from gene discovery to target identification. Drug Discovery Today, 5 (2000), 415-425. 

Identification and functional characterization of genes Genomics is the identification of previously unknown human DNA sequences encoding natural human proteins with previously unknown medical use that can be used as targets in Drug Discovery to discover novel therapeutic agents or administered for therapeutic benefit. 

The drug discovery process is a long and expensive pathway and rich in failure. It starts from the disease selection and the identification of the correlate gene/target and finishes, after the clinical trials, with the launch of the drug on the market (see Figure 15.1). 

Another field of application for primary cells is their use in target identification and validation studies. To fully understand the importance of a gene as a potential target for a drug discovery campaign, it is crucial to use the appropriate cell type or, when available, a clinically relevant, well defined tissue sample. For reasons of convenience, most pathway analysis utilizes transformed cell lines. 

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