Drug Discovery

Drug discovery is a vast field with many specializations. Each step in the process focuses on a different part of finding and developing new drugs.

It starts with target discovery–identifying a biological feature like a protein or membrane to focus on. Once a target is found, researchers search for a hit, a compound that shows early signs of interacting with the target. Promising hits are refined into lead compounds, which have stronger activity and better drug-like properties.

Next comes lead optimization, followed by pre-clinical testing, and finally clinical trials. Before development even begins, the discovery phase can take years.