Session Chairs:
William Janzen, Amphora Discovery Corporation, USA
Doriano Fabbro, Novartis Institute for Biomedical Research, Switzerland
Target specificity can mean many different things. Protein families such as protein kinases, GPCRs and ion channels play an essential role in many signaling pathways, and have, therefore, the potential to contribute to diseases ranging from cancer, inflammation and diabetes to cardiovascular and infectious disorders. Specificity as it is related to disease involvement is key to defining druggable targets, but identification of specific interactions and functional validation of targets remains a challenge. This session will explore contextual usage of the term specificity as well as methods for exploring compound target interactions and innovative approaches that have been developed to address specificity.