Selecting the best chemical probe

To select the best chemical probe for an experiment, search the Chemical Probes Portal database. After searching by protein target or compound name, the search results will summarise key properties of the chemical probes that match your search with the best probe to use shown first. Clicking on each probe, will open a page with more detailed information.

The probe page will also recommend the use of suitable control compounds and/or orthogonal probes, which will provide you with more confidence in the observed results. Alternatively, it is also possible to browse ChemicalProbes.org and use filters to reduce the number of results.

Search results are sorted based on the SERP star rating. The higher the star rating the better the probe is according to expert assessment, out of a maximum of four stars.

We recommend that you use more than one probe to validate your experiment (see Controls for chemical probes). We aim to have at least two probes for each protein target assessed by experts in The Chemical Probes Portal. In addition, our SERP members provide useful comments explaining the best way to use a specific probe, including at which concentrations to use the compounds, as well as highlighting potential pitfalls with a particular compound.

The best chemical probes are potent, highly selective both within and outside their protein family, well characterised and have good evidence of modulation of the protein target. See our probe criteria for more details.