Target 2035: probing the human proteome

• Published in: Drug discovery today 2019-11, Vol.24 (11), p.2111-2115
• Main Authors: Carter, Adrian J., Kraemer, Oliver, Zwick, Matthias, Mueller-Fahrnow, Anke, Arrowsmith, Cheryl H., Edwards, Aled M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1359-6446; 1878-5832
• DOI: 10.1016/j.drudis.2019.06.020

•Natural tendency for researchers to focus on a small fraction of the human proteome.•Pharmacological modulators are one of the best ways of interrogating the function of a protein.•Making such tools widely available helps scientists turn genetic advances into new medicines.•Target 2035 will create the pharmacological tools needed to study the entire proteome. Biomedical scientists tend to focus on only a small fraction of the proteins encoded by the human genome despite overwhelming genetic evidence that many understudied proteins are important for human disease. One of the best ways to interrogate the function of a protein and to determine its relevance as a drug target is by using a pharmacological modulator, such as a chemical probe or an antibody. If these tools were available for most human proteins, it should be possible to translate the tremendous advances in genomics into a greater understanding of human health and disease, and catalyze the creation of innovative new medicines. Target 2035 is a global federation for developing and applying new technologies with the goal of creating chemogenomic libraries, chemical probes, and/or functional antibodies for the entire proteome.