Kinase Drug Discovery

Book excerpt: Kinase inhibition remains an area of significant interest, and growing importance, across academia and the pharmaceutical industry. There are now many marketed drugs that target kinases and a significant number of compounds are currently in various stages of clinical development. This book is a forward-looking analysis of a number of key areas for kinase inhibition in the coming years and builds on the first volume. This includes topics such as screening approaches to target kinases along with different modes of inhibition such as allosteric and covalent. Novel approaches such as macrocyclisation are considered along with how the properties of kinase inhibitors have evolved, including the potential for brain penetration. Recent areas of great importance also covered include cutting edge molecular modelling approaches and the importance of kinase mutations. The evolving biology of kinases has also resulted in increased interest in the immuno-oncology area and also pseudokinases as a target family. As with the first volume the book finishes with a forward looking view of how research against this fascinating target class may evolve.