Cytological profiling: providing more haystacks for chemists' needles.

Department of Cell Biology, Harvard Medical School, 240 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA.

Conventional high-throughput 'chemical genetic' screening seeks to identify small-molecule inhibitors of a specific protein or pathway. A recent study describes how unbiased screening of cellular morphology, followed by affinity purification to identify targets of compounds with interesting effects, can lead to the identification of novel inhibitors.

PMID: 16086858 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

PMCID: PMC1273624