Find that molecule | Nature

JOURNAL OF BIOMOLECULAR SCREENING: THE OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY FOR BIOMOLECULAR SCREENING Edited by: * _Mark Crawford_ Liebert. 4/yr. USA $185, elsewhere $236 (institutional); USA

$127, elsewhere $146 (personal) Credit: MARK DOBSON In response to mounting competitive pressure, the pharmaceutical, agricultural and biotechnology industries have made changes in their

discovery programmes to identify lead candidate molecules more quickly and to reduce development failures and costs. The growth in the number and variety of assays has placed renewed

emphasis on high-throughput screening as a source of quality drug candidates. Screening countless natural product extracts and chemical libraries has long been a workhorse of drug discovery,

so recent advances in chemistry, biology, automation and information management have created a need for a new forum for the exchange of ideas. The Society of Biomolecular Screening meets

this multidisciplinary need. As its house organ, _Journal of Biomolecular Screening_ includes society updates and provides a place for working groups to promote standards. Take microtitre

trays for automated handling. The typical biochemist may think that all trays are interchangeable and perhaps somewhat boring, but the automation engineer knows all too well that small

variations in the dimensions of commercial microtitre plates represent an immense range for a robotic gripper system. Also published in each issue are three to five original articles

covering a wide range of topics of interest to the screening industry. Well written and attractively illustrated, they describe assay technology, combinatorial chemistry techniques and

automation. A stimulating feature is a ‘point-counterpoint’ debate that aims to reach a compromise between pragmatic demands and ideal goals in screening. I found the technical reports

describing product applications informative, considering the importance of instrumentation in this field. The journal should provide a useful forum for discussion of assay technologies,

automation strategies and their integration into screening programmes. AUTHOR INFORMATION AUTHORS AND AFFILIATIONS * Aurora Biosciences Corporation, 11149 N. Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla,

92037, California, USA Neal S. Burres Authors * Neal S. Burres View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS Reprints and

permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE Burres, N. Find that molecule. _Nature_ 389, 144 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1038/38199 Download citation * Issue Date: 11 September 1997 *

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/38199 SHARE THIS ARTICLE Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content: Get shareable link Sorry, a shareable link is not currently

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