Personal Essay: Adventures and Experiences in Fragment-Based Drug Discovery

Medicinal Chemists and Drug Hunters have always been looking for the minimal active “fragment” as the start point for any small molecule discovery project. Back in the day that usually meant deconstruction of a high throughput screening hit or some other bioactive molecule. I was fortunate enough to become involved very early on in the revolution which has become “Fragment-Based Drug Discovery (FBDD)” which is now firmly established as part of the Drug Discovery Armoury. FBDD is at the vanguard of some of the most exciting developments in small molecule targeting of many of the highest value targets in medicine today.