Published on 02/12/2022
With over 600 associates, the chemical biology department of Novartis is the largest at any pharmaceutical company in the world. Novartis began investing in this field nearly 20 years ago, and the insights from this approach have led to blockbuster medicines in areas such as multiple sclerosis and cancer. So, what is chemical biology?
“We mix the two disciplines together to use the tools of chemistry to tease apart questions in biology, which provides insights that lead to new medicines,” explains John Tallarico, Global Head of Chemical Biology and Therapeutics (CBT) at the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR). “Chemical biology is also about having a mindset to be open to collaborating with experts and a willingness to learn more about whatever direction the science leads you.”
Thanks to this openness, chemical biology has been especially important in the development of innovative technologies – such as miniature kidney organoids to study kidney biology – as well as completely new paths for how drugs can operate. For example, whereas most drugs act on protein targets, recent discoveries have opened up RNA targets and there is also an emerging strategy that sends disease-causing proteins to cellular garbage disposals.
“These ideas were previously unthinkable using conventional targeted strategies,” adds Jeremy Jenkins, US Head of CBT at NIBR. “In addition, small-molecule chemical tools can manipulate biology in ways that are inaccessible to genetic interventions like CRISPR because small molecules act more rapidly and conditionally, which allows us to understand the relationship between structure and function in the macromolecules of life.”
Following is a three-part series about the activities of Novartis in the chemical biology space. This includes a feature about organoid research, a novel drug discovery approach that could open up hundreds of previously inaccessible protein targets, and a powerful microscope that is providing never-before-seen images of complex biological systems.
