Chemical probes

Small-molecule chemical probes are important tools that are widely used by scientists to modify – usually to inhibit – the activity of individual proteins in isolated cells or organisms and hence to determine their function.

Chemical probes are also used to test the role of a particular protein in diseases such as cancer, and to help validate that protein as a target for future drugs.

Probe Miner, a publicly available, free-to-use web-based resource, was created by scientists at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, and is the first publicly available, large-scale objective resource on chemical probes.

The ICR is also a co-founder of the Chemical Probes Portal, an open-access online resource which provides expert reviews of chemical probes for use in biomedical research and drug discovery.

This page highlights recent news stories and blog posts that concern chemical probes.