Controls for chemical probes

Data for chemical probes is inherently incomplete. A compound that has been shown to modulate a protein without affecting other tested proteins may still modulate other proteins against which it has not been evaluated.

We try to address this in two ways.

First, a second, structurally distinct chemical probe is likely (but not guaranteed) to have a different off-target profile; if the results of the two unrelated compounds are the same, there is increased confidence that the phenotypic effects are from interaction with the target protein.

Secondly, we strongly recommend the use of a negative control that is structurally related to the chemical probe whenever possible, but considerably less active on the main target. Negative controls are likely (but not guaranteed) to share the same off-targets with the chemical probe as they are structurally similar.