The recent growth in the number of academic drug discovery centres is providing new opportunities to couple the curiosity-driven research culture in academia with rigorous preclinical drug discovery practices used in industry. To realize the potential of these opportunities, it is important that academic researchers understand the risks in several key areas — including organization, target selection, assay design, medicinal chemistry and preclinical pharmacology — which are discussed in this article.
- Jayme L. Dahlin
- James Inglese
- Michael A. Walters