Discussion

Pharmaceutical R&D often begins with either a High Throughput Screen (HTS) or a more directed Sub-Set Screen. On the surface this paradigm aligns well with the current resurgence in phenotypic screening throughout the industry - diversity screening does not assume anything about chemical space of interest, whilst true phenotypic screening is the antithesis of molecular target-based reductionism (screening against an observed phenotype of interest, rather than a defined target). Annotation of chemical equity, through multi-parameter screening or multiple campaigns is critical to progress any potential hits - building as rich a data set against compounds and biology as possible.
We will present an overview of historic phenotypic HTS campaigns within AstraZeneca, along with our views on current technologies and future considerations for phenotypic screening at scale.