Chemical biology--understanding biology and advancing therapy

Chemical biology is a new academic discipline whose goals are to understand biological systems using chemistry and chemical compounds. In addition to serving as important biological probes, some of these small molecules could be useful therapeutically. This review will discuss how advances in chemical biology by academics can aid in the discovery of new anti-cancer agents. Specifically, novel molecules can be useful tools to validate a potential target in a disease site and help provide the rationale for a clinical trial with a related molecule developed by industry. These novel molecules can also be developed for clinical use, although obstacles to this approach are recognized. Finally, this review discusses the opportunities to identify off-patent drugs with previously unrecognized anti-cancer activity and how the prior data on the drug would permit it to be rapidly repurposed.