In silico research in drug discovery

Target and lead discovery constitute the main components of today's early p harmaceutical research. The aim of target discovery is the identification a nd validation of suitable drug targets for therapeutic intervention, wherea s lead discovery identifies novel chemical molecules that act on those targ ets. With the near completion of the human genome sequencing, bioinformatic s has established itself as an essential tool in target discovery and the i n silico analysis of gene expression and gene function are now an integral part of it, facilitating the selection of the most relevant targets for a d isease under study. In lead discovery, advances in chemoinformatics have le d to the design of compound libraries in silico that can be screened virtua lly. Moreover, computational methods are being developed to predict the dru g-likeness of compounds. Thus, drug discovery is already on the road toward s electronic R&D.