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Our History
Advances in molecular technologies over the past decades have led to unprecedented power to examine molecular mechanisms and pathways across all areas of biology. Alongside biological tools such as RNA interference and CRISPR, biologists rely heavily on the use of small-molecule compounds (inhibitors, agonists, antagonists etc) to probe the specific sites and mechanisms of action in their experiments.
However, the lack of appropriate information accompanying many of these chemical tools has led to an alarming propagation in the use of unsuitable compounds or the improper use of chemical tools.
In 2015, a community call1 to arms came with an international coalition of experts to alert the research community to the perils of using inappropriate chemical tools in their experiments. The Chemical Probes Portal was born out of an urgent need to enable the wider biological research community about best practices in chemical probe selection, and how to use them appropriately within in-vitro and in-vivo experiments
Despite it being a largely voluntary effort, the Chemical Probes Portal has grown in influence and has been informing biologists for the past >five years. However, it’s growth was hampered due to the lack of sufficient dedicated resources to ensure its progression and adaptation to the ever-changing field of chemical biology.
Recently, the team was awarded a Wellcome Biomedical Resource Award to revitalise, enhance and significantly grow the Chemical Probes Portal. A new dedicated team has been established with the following aims:
- Significantly grow the number of probes in the portal
- Reflect changing science
- Significantly expand the Scientific Expert Review Panel and support them in providing reviews more easily
- Enhance our training and outreach capabilities
- Enable more rapid update of information as knowledge changes in the field
- Enable all of the above through the implementation of a new infrastructure aimed at powering up the data underlying the Chemical Probes Portal
[1] The promise and peril of chemical probes by Arrowsmith et al (Nature Chemical Biology)