The changing face of screening and drug discovery

Screening Asia 2011, Singapore, 22–23 November 2011. The meeting covered traditional topics such as high-content screening and assay development, as well as more contemporary, emergent areas involving novel screening platforms and technologies, strategies to deal with biosimilars and biologics, and natural product diversity. Notably, many talks challenged established screening practices and the use of 'combichem' small-molecule libraries. Instead, speakers offered an alternate view of compound library design and screening strategies that could better mimic the target and cell status found in the relevant disease state.