Chemical Biology & Drug Design: Special Thematic Issues on a Molecular Armamentarium of Novel Chemical and Biological Medicines for the War on Disease and Innovative Technologies Enabling the Life Sciences and Drug Discovery

Abstract

The concept of special thematic issues of Chemical Biology & Drug Design to highlight significant advancements in both medicine and technology is now being translated into reality. The first special thematic issue will be focused on a molecular armamentarium of novel chemical and biological medicines for the war on disease, and the second will be focused on innovative technologies enabling the life sciences and drug discovery. Some details of each are described below, including the modus operandi for special thematic issue contribution proposals and networking. This special thematic issue of CB&DD will provide snapshots of both recent and emerging novel chemical and biological medicines for life-threatening and debilitating diseases (e.g. cancer, cardiovascular diseases, neural diseases, metabolic diseases, endocrine diseases, immune diseases and infectious diseases). Without question, significant progress has been achieved within the last few years with respect to drug discovery (e.g. proof-of-concept molecules and preclinical lead compounds), clinical candidates and breakthrough medicines. For example, breakthrough medicines targeting protein kinases have provided impetus to a global campaign to advance new classes of cancer drugs, which inhibit this superfamily of therapeutic targets. Drug resistance is becoming more well-understood at both the mechanistic and the structural level, hence providing insight to drug discovery and promising future medicines. Furthermore, strategies for combination therapies for complex diseases of multiple genetic origin implicates the importance of expanding the molecular armamentarium of yet novel medicines to meet the challenges of challenging pathological states of human affliction. This special thematic issue of CB&DD will be focused on innovative technologies enabling basic research and drug discovery, and it will provide snapshots of biological models and screening, chemical diversity and synthesis, and drug design and in silico tools. The plethora of both established and emerging R&D technologies includes sophisticated in vitro and in vivo biological models and high-throughput screening, chemical libraries and advanced reagents, building blocks and synthetic methods, and high-powered molecular modeling, structural biology (e.g. X-ray, nuclear magnetic resonance), biophysical methods (e.g. calorimetry) and informatics (e.g. chemoinformatics and bioinformatics). The impact of such technology platforms is expanding in extraordinary ways within both life sciences and drug discovery campaigns in industry, academia and government institutions. You are invited to be actively involved in these special thematic issues of CB&DD! Proposals for specific scientific topics, including suggested authors or institutions, as well as sponsorship are welcome (send a note of interest to: [email protected]).