Innovation in academic chemical screening: filling the gaps in chemical biology

Academic screening centers across the world have endeavored to discover small molecules that can modulate biological systems. To increase the reach of functional-genomic and chemical screening programs, universities, research institutes, and governments have followed their industrial counterparts in adopting high-throughput paradigms. As academic screening efforts have steadily grown in scope and complexity, so have the ideas of what is possible with the union of technology and biology. This review addresses the recent conceptual and technological innovation that has been propelling academic screening into its own unique niche. In particular, high-content and whole-organism screening are changing how academics search for novel bioactive compounds. Importantly, we recognize examples of successful chemical probe development that have punctuated the changing technology landscape.