My beginner intro to drug discovery (part 2): Who is involved in drug discovery?

There are various discipline that are involved in the process of discoverying a new drug.

In this blog post, we unveil some key players in drug discovery: Biochemists, Medicinal Chemists, and DMPK experts. Note: There are still other fields or disciplines involved and the work of discovering a new drug for a disease is very collaborative.

Biochemists: They are involved in phenotypic and target-based screening. Phenotypic screening means the biologist observes the effects of a drug on diseased cells. Target-based screening involves understanding how a drug affects the target protein. Does it inhibit its function or upregulate it?

Medicinal Chemist: The role of medicinal chemists is to design drugs that specifically interact with the proteins of the disease-causing parasite, ensuring the drug can achieve the desired effect. They collaborate with biologists to understand the protein's structure and identify essential drug components for protein interaction. Additionally, they determine the optimal size of the drug.

It was interesting to learn that medicinal chemists can visualize the protein they are working on but not the drug itself.

DMPK (Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics):

In vitro DMPK (Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics): This discipline assesses the drug's likelihood of surviving and reaching its intended site of action in humans, regardless of infection status. It aims to answer the question: "If this drug is administered to humans, will it reach its target location?"

In vivo DMPK (Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics): This discipline evaluates the drug's effectiveness in living animals. Does the animal survive even without the disease? If so, does the drug effectively treat the disease?

Thanks for reading. Still, check the part 3 of this series: https://dev.to/emmakodes_/my-beginner-intro-to-drug-discovery-part-3-animals-in-scientific-research-5eg7