Small molecule screening program

人类基因组计划使得使用高通量技术在遗传和分子水平上研究细胞和组织的生物学变得越来越有可能。NIH化学基因组中心(NCGC)是作为NIH路线图分子图书馆倡议的一部分创建的，目的是帮助建立一个化学基因组学计划，该计划的定义是使用小型有机化合物来研究基因组编码的基因产品和途径。通过在学术领域提供识别靶标、途径和细胞表型的生物活性化合物的能力，该计划将把小分子筛选、化学和信息学的力量和多样性带给试图确定基因组编码的数万个人类基因的功能的广泛的研究人员。今天，只有不到500种人类基因产品含有与之相互作用的化合物。NCGC将与其他由校外分子图书馆筛选中心网络RFA资助的中心一起，探索尚未发现小分子化学探针的绝大多数人类基因组。这一倡议有望极大地提高对基因及其蛋白质产物功能机制的理解，并加快基于基因组知识的人类疾病治疗方法的开发。

The Human Genome Project has made it increasingly possible to study the biology of cells and tissues at the genetic and molecular level using high-throughput technologies. The NIH Chemical Genomics Center (NCGC) was created as part of the NIH Roadmap Molecular Libraries Initiative, to help establish a program in chemical genomics, defined as the use of small organic compounds to study gene products and pathways encoded by the genome. By providing capacities in the academic sector to identify bioactive compounds for targets, pathways, and cellular phenotypes, this program will bring the power and diversity of small-molecule screening, chemistry, and informatics to broad array of researchers attempting to determine the function of the tens of thousands of human genes encoded by the genome. Today, there are less than 500 human gene products have chemical compounds that interact with them. The NCGC, together with other centers to be funded via the extramural Molecular Libraries Screening Center Network RFA, will explore the vast majority of the human genome for which no small-molecule chemical probes have been identified. This initiative promises to significantly improve the understanding of mechanisms by which genes and their protein products function and accelerate the development of therapies for human diseases based on knowledge of the genome.