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7228028 
Journal Article 
Future challenges with DNA-encoded chemical libraries in the drug discovery domain 
Zhao, G; Huang, Y; Zhou, Y; Li, Y; Li, X; , 
2019 
Yes 
Expert Opinion on Drug Discovery
ISSN: 1746-0441 
English 
31111767 
Introduction: DNA-encoded chemical libraries (DELs) have come of age and emerged to become a powerful technology platform for ligand discovery in biomedical research and drug discovery. Today, DELs have been widely adopted in the pharmaceutical industry and employed in drug discovery programs worldwide. DELs are capable of interrogating drug targets with an extremely large number of compounds highly efficiently. Area covered: In this review, the authors introduce the history of DELs and provide an overview of the major technological components, including encoding methods, library synthesis, chemistry, selection methods, hit deconvolution strategy, and post-selection data analysis. A brief update on the hit compounds recently discovered from DEL selections against drug targets is also provided. Finally, the authors discuss their views on the present challenges and future directions for the development and application of DELs in drug discovery. Expert opinion: DELs have provided great opportunities for lead compound discovery at an unprecedented scale and efficiency in drug discovery. The key to the future success of DELs as true discovery modalities, rather than just 'a way to make many compounds,' is to go beyond physical binding to functional or even phenotypic assays with the capability to probe the biological system.