New developments and emerging trends in high-throughput screening methods for lead compound identification

evelopments and emerging trends in high-throughput screening methods for lead compound identification Review (4140) Total Article Views Authors: James W Noah Published Date August 2010 Volume 2010:1 Pages 141 - 149 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2147/IJHTS.S8683 James W Noah Drug Discovery Division, Southern Research Institute, Birmingham, Alabama, USA Abstract: High-throughput screening (HTS) campaigns have become a starting point for many drug discovery programs and are being conducted not only by large pharmaceutical companies but increasingly by smaller biotechnology companies, university research laboratories, and not-for-profit organizations. The underlying theme of any HTS campaign is the inventive application of brute force, and the pace and variety of invention strategies that have increased as HTS has evolved from a specialty capability to a standardized technology. Incorporation of HTS elements into the earliest phases of assay development supports the most economic and logistically feasible transition into a HTS campaign and subsequent lead compound discovery. There is a constant dilemma, however, when considering whether well-established, mature technologies should be replaced by new methods that promise to deliver spectacular economic, temporal, or logistical advantages. This is a review of some of the more novel and promising HTS technological and conceptual innovations that are currently being successfully used in the field.