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Updated: Jun 15, 2025
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A Web Tool for Generating High Quality Machine-readable Biological Pathways
Published on: February 8, 2017
17.6K
Chemical coverage of human biological pathways
Haejin Angela Kwak1, Lihua Liu2, Claudia Tredup3
1Structural Genomics Consortium, University of Toronto, 101 College Street, MaRS South Tower, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M5G 1L7, Canada; Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Toronto, 1 King's College Circle, Toronto, Ontario M5S 1A8, Canada.
Drug Discovery Today
|August 23, 2024
Summary
Chemical probes are essential for understanding human biology and developing precision medicine. Despite targeting only 3% of proteins, these tools already map over half of human biological pathways, aiding drug discovery.
Area of Science:
- Biochemistry
- Pharmacology
- Genomics
Background:
- Chemical probes and chemogenomic compounds are vital for linking genes to phenotypes and exploring human biology.
- These tools are crucial for identifying novel drug targets for precision medicine.
- The Target 2035 initiative aims to develop chemical tools for all human proteins by 2035.
Purpose of the Study:
- To map the current chemical coverage of human biological pathways.
- To assess the utility of existing chemical tools in understanding human biology.
- To identify potential strategies for future drug discovery efforts.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of existing chemical probe and drug databases.
- Mapping targeted proteins to human biological pathways.
- Evaluating the coverage of the human proteome and biological pathways by chemical tools.
Main Results:
- Existing chemical tools target only 3% of the human proteome.
- These tools currently cover 53% of human biological pathways.
- The available chemical toolkit is versatile for dissecting biological functions.
Conclusions:
- Despite limited proteome coverage, chemical tools provide broad pathway insights.
- Pathways targeted by current drugs may harbor undiscovered drug targets.
- Prioritizing these pathways in the Target 2035 initiative could accelerate drug discovery.
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