Chemical probes for all human proteins: an impossible project?

Chemical probes are drug-like molecules that potently and selectively modulate the activity of proteins in cell-based assays and can be used as tools to explore the druggable genome and discover therapeutic targets. To enable research on the dark proteome, a novel initiative is calling for the discovery of chemical probes for all human proteins by year 2035. I will briefly outline the why and what of this large-scale initiative, and present the discovery at the Structural Genomics Consortium of chemical probes against two proteins involved in epigenetic mechanisms: WDR5 and NSD2.