Drug Discovery News and Research

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The drug discovery process begins with recognizing a disease or clinical condition in which there is a lack of adequate medical treatment. Once a potential drug has been identified, pre-clinical research can begin. This process includes several stages; the first of which involves identifying and validating the prospective drug’s target through assay development, high throughput screening, hit identification and finally, lead optimization. Once the pre-clinical process is complete, the newly synthesized drug candidate is selected for future clinical development.

Synthetic Biology and Artificial Intelligence Transform the Discovery of Mysterious Orphan Receptors

A new review highlights how synthetic biology, AI, and spatial omics could transform ligand-receptor discovery from one-by-one searches into network-level mapping

23 May 2026

AI Designs Custom Miniproteins to Precisely Control Cell Receptors

G protein-coupled receptors, or GPCRs, sit in the plasma membrane, the boundary that defines the inside and outside of a living cell. They communicate with nearly every physiological process in our bodies - from the ability to see and smell, to sensing of adrenaline, insulin, nutrients and medicines.

22 May 2026

Drug-Resistant Superbugs Contribute to Nearly Five Million Global Human Deaths Every Year

A team of researchers from Florida State University and the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory is looking to nature to find microbes that can be used to create new antibiotics to treat the growing threat of drug-resistant bacteria.

22 May 2026

Novel Formicitoxins Found in Carpenter Ant Venom Offer Drug Discovery Impetus

The venom of forest ants and horse ants contains numerous substances that protect the insects from pathogens. Researchers at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) and Freie Universität Berlin have succeeded for the first time in identifying and characterizing these novel antimicrobial substances in the insects' venom.

19 May 2026

Novel RNA Analysis Method Supports Antiviral Drug Discovery

Researchers from A*STAR Genome Institute of Singapore (A*STAR GIS) have developed a new method, called 'sm-PORE-cupine', to study individual RNA molecules and reveal how their structures influence gene regulation, a fundamental process that affects how cells function in health and disease.

15 May 2026

Advanced Molecular Blueprints Guide Development Of Next-Generation Malaria Drugs

Researchers from the Universities of Bath and Leeds (UK) have made a significant advance in the fight against malaria by uncovering a promising new potential target for drug discovery.

7 May 2026

CapyBio Launches New Analysis Services to Improve Cell Identity Engineering

CapyBio, a cell identity tools and services company, today announced the launch of three new commercial analysis services: Capybara™ Benchmarking Analysis, Capybara Advanced Analysis, and CellOracle™ Differentiation Optimization Analysis.

7 May 2026

AI Designs New Antibiotics That Reduce MRSA Infections In Mice

SyntheMol-RL integrates reinforcement learning for antibiotic design, producing synthesizable candidates that show efficacy against MRSA in preclinical models.

5 May 2026

Proxygen Expands Platform Beyond Degradation to Build Next-Generation Induced Proximity Therapeutics

Proxygen, a biotechnology company pioneering the discovery of molecular glue degraders and next-generation proximity-based therapeutics, today publicly announced the expansion of its platform beyond targeted protein degradation to access a broader range of induced proximity therapeutics, while advancing two lead molecular glue degrader programs toward clinical development.

From Proxygen 29 Apr 2026

Generative AI Model Accelerates Drug Discovery With New Antibiotic Candidate

Researchers at McMaster University have developed a new generative artificial intelligence (AI) model capable of drastically speeding up drug discovery - and, in early tests, it has already designed a brand-new antibiotic.

24 Apr 2026

Fragment-Based Drug Design Accelerates Efficient Discovery of New Medicines

Modern medicine has played a significant role in improving the length and quality of our lives. While many treatments may seem like miracles, they are the result of a lengthy, rigorous research process.

24 Apr 2026

Protein Shape Changes Come Into Focus With LiP-MS and 3D Proteomics

This review explains how LiP-MS detects protein structural changes across whole proteomes, adding functional insight that standard abundance-based proteomics often misses. It also surveys method variants and shows how LiP-MS supports drug-target discovery, disease biomarker research, and the broader framework of “3D proteomics.”

20 Apr 2026

Cutting-Edge AI Tool Could Accelerate the Creation of New Medicines

University of Virginia School of Medicine scientists have developed a bold new approach to drug development and discovery that could dramatically accelerate the creation of new medicines.

10 Apr 2026

Study Reveals Pol Theta Role in Cancer DNA Repair

A cancer drug target already being investigated in clinical trials turns out to be doing something even more consequential than researchers realized.

8 Apr 2026

Novel ENDOtollins Block Harmful Inflammation While Preserving Infection Response

Scripps Research scientists have developed a new class of drug compounds that reduce harmful inflammation while leaving the body's ability to fight infections intact-a long-sought goal in treating autoimmune diseases.

7 Apr 2026

PRISM ALS: New Stem Cell Models Could Transform Research into Treatments for MND/ALS

A new global initiative launched today aims to close a critical gap in ALS/MND drug discovery – current cell models used for testing treatments do not currently reflect the diverse nature of the disease – that affects both researchers developing therapies and the people urgently waiting for them.

From Axol Bioscience Ltd 2 Apr 2026

New Technology Enables Whole-Body Analysis of Gene Expression

Understanding gene expression within the body has been a boon for 21st century biology and therapeutics, but most discoveries that use these technologies only focus on one organ or one small area of tissue.

30 Mar 2026

Computational Chemistry Maps Spliceosome Dynamics at Atomic Resolution

A new study from the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT), in collaboration with Uppsala University (Sweden) and AstraZeneca, shows how computational chemistry and supercomputers can help scientists better understand the fundamental mechanisms of life, specifically those of human cells.

28 Mar 2026

New AI Tool Guides Chemists Toward Faster Drug Discovery

Drug discovery is like molecular Tetris. Chemists snap atoms together, adjusting the pieces until everything fits and suddenly, a molecule makes a promising new medicine.

10 Mar 2026

Bacteria-Powered Drug Discovery: A Greener Path to Curing "Undruggable" Cancers

Researchers at the University of Bath have developed a new technology that uses bacteria to build, chemically stabilize, and test millions of potential drug molecules inside living cells, making it much quicker and easier to discover new treatments for difficult-to-treat cancers.

4 Mar 2026