Target Validation in Drug Discovery

This work presents a comprehensive contemporary framework for approaching target validation in drug discovery. It begins with a detailed description of new enabling technologies, including aptamers, RNA interference, functional genomics, and proteomics. The next section looks at biologic drug development with in-depth discussion of lessons learned from such well-known cases as Erbitux, Herceptin, and Avastin. Additional targets known as "e;second generation"e; drugs, which can be identified when disease pathways are validated by biologics, present new possible small molecule therapeutics and serve as the focus of the final section of the book.