Chemical genetic screening approaches to neurobiology

Chemical genetics is an emerging technology for revealing the signaling networks that regulate biological phenotypes using exogenous reagents such as small organic molecules. To study neurobiology using chemical genetics, high-throughput cell and organismal assays can be created to identify compounds and proteins that regulate diverse neuronal phenotypes, such as cell viability, gene expression level, protein association, protein aggregation, glutamate uptake, membrane polarization, mitochondrial function, neurite outgrowth, and growth cone composition. This powerful set of tools will enable the molecular dissection of complex processes that occur within the nervous system.