Chemogenomic approaches to drug discovery: similar receptors bind similar ligands

Within recent years, a paradigm shift from traditional receptor-specific studies to a cross-receptor view has taken place within pharmaceutical research to increase the efficiency of modern drug discovery. Receptors are no longer viewed as single entities but grouped into sets of related proteins or receptor families that are explored in a systematic manner. This interdisciplinary approach attempting to derive predictive links between the chemical structures of bioactive molecules and the receptors with which these molecules interact is referred to as chemogenomics. Insights from chemogenomics are used for the rational compilation of screening sets and for the rational design and synthesis of directed chemical libraries to accelerate drug discovery.