Drug discovery of the future: the implications of the human genome project

• Published in: Trends in biotechnology (Regular ed.) Vol. 19; no. 12; pp. 496 - 499
• Main Author: Reiss, Thomas
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01.12.2001; Elsevier Science
• Subjects: bioinformatics; Biological and medical sciences; Biotechnology; Computational Biology; Drug Design; drug discovery; Drug Industry; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; genome; Genome, Human; Health. Pharmaceutical industry; Humans; Industrial applications and implications. Economical aspects; Miscellaneous; Models, Biological; sequencing; targets; genome; drug discovery; targets; bioinformatics; sequencing; Human; Drug; Pharmaceutical technology; Genomics; Mathematics; Physiology; Genome; Pharmaceutical industry; Bioinformatics; Research and development
• ISSN: 0167-7799; 1879-3096
• DOI: 10.1016/S0167-7799(01)01811-X

The elucidation of the 3.2-gigabase human genome will have various impacts on drug discovery. The number of drug targets will increase by at least one order of magnitude and target validation will become a high-throughput process. To benefit from these opportunities, a theory-based integration of the vast amount of new biological data into models of biological systems is called for. The skills and knowledge required for genome-based drug discovery of the future go beyond the traditional competencies of the pharmaceutical industry. Cooperation with biotechnology firms and research institutions during drug discovery and development will become even more important. Sequencing the human genome was just a first step. This article explains how new drugs can be generated from this knowledge and what it implies for biological research in general.