Chemogenomics – pharmacology with genomics tools

Abstract Although genomics tools and approaches abound, and many new genes and proteins have been identified, genomics has not contributed very effectively to improving the efficiencies and success rates in the drug discovery process. However, chemogenomics, which enables the system-wide analysis of the effects of different compounds via a description (or signature) for phenotypic endpoints, offers a powerful new tool for drug discovery. This paper reviews the field in its broad context and gives a brief description of an example in which chemogenomics has been applied, using a large-scale approach to explain the side-effects of the lipid-lowering agent gemfibrozil.