OOIR: Observatory of International Research

Papers

(The TQCC of Expert Opinion on Drug Discovery is 13. The table below lists those papers that are above that threshold based on CrossRef citation counts [max. 250 papers]. The publications cover those that have been published in the past four years, i.e., from 2022-05-01 to 2026-05-01.)

Article	Citations
Lessons learned from phenotypic drug discovery efforts	184
Reality check: lipid-oligonucleotide conjugates for therapeutic applications	138
The root cause: why do so many drugs fail to translate from bench to bedside?	104
Scaffold hopping approaches for dual-target antitumor drug discovery: opportunities and challenges	83
Polypharmacology prediction: the long road toward comprehensively anticipating small-molecule selectivity to de-risk drug discovery	62
What is the plausibility that all drugs will be designed by computers by the end of the decade?	54
Advances in ion channel high throughput screening: where are we in 2023?	53
Discovery of novel cathepsin K inhibitors for osteoporosis treatment using a deep learning-based strategy	52
γ-Secretase: once and future drug target for Alzheimer’s disease	45
Strategies for targeting RNA with small molecule drugs	44
Advances in the discovery of drugs that treat pulmonary arterial hypertension	43
Methods in marine natural product drug discovery: what’s new?	42
Tools and techniques for the discovery of therapeutic aptamers: recent advances	39
Bisquinoline as a promising scaffold in anti-infective drug discovery: the current state of the art and future prospects	38
The preclinical discovery and development of gepirone hydrochloride extended-release tablets: the first oral selective 5-HT1A receptor agonist for the treatment of major depressive disorder	37
A comprehensive update on the use of molecular topology applications for anti-infective drug discovery	36
Designing drugs against leishmaniasis: is targeting the sterol biosynthesis pathway the answer?	36
Phenotypic screening for new heart failure therapeutics: scalable animal modeling in zebrafish	35
Understanding the impact of binding free energy and kinetics calculations in modern drug discovery	35
Novel insights into structure–activity relationships of kynurenine 3-monooxygenase inhibitors (KMOis) with emphasis on chemical space, activity landscape exploration	34
A cautionary tale of paradox and false positives in cannabidiol research	32
The impact of antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) therapeutics on the future of rare disease drug discovery	32
C. elegans : a prominent platform for modeling and drug screening in neurological disorders	32
The potential of microfluidic platforms for neuron differentiation and pain modeling in novel drug discovery	31
The rules often neglected in current medicinal chemistry	31

Water in drug design: pitfalls and good practices	30
Calcium channel blockers’ contribution to overcoming Current drug discovery challenges in Alzheimer’s disease	30
An update on knowledge graphs and their current and potential applications in drug discovery	29
Virtual screening: hope, hype, and the fine line in between	29
Molecular hybridization: a powerful tool for multitarget drug discovery	29
Acoustic ejection mass spectrometry: fundamentals and applications in high-throughput drug discovery	29
Novel hydrogels: are they poised to transform 3D cell-based assay systems in early drug discovery?	28
Current challenges and future perspectives of drug discovery in China	28
The discovery and development of RNA-based therapies for treatment of HIV-1 infection	27
Recent applications of positron emission tomographic (PET) imaging in psychiatric drug discovery	27
Correction	27
Identifying novel drugs with new modes of action for neglected tropical fungal skin diseases (fungal skinNTDs) using an Open Source Drug discovery approach	26
Inhibitors of the PLK1 polo-box domain: drug design strategies and therapeutic opportunities in cancer	26
Innovative strategies for the discovery of new drugs against alopecia areata: taking aim at the immune system	26
Animal models of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and their role in drug discovery and development: a critical review	25
The application of pancreatic cancer organoids for novel drug discovery	25
Lessons learned from the discovery and development of the sesquiterpene lactones in cancer therapy and prevention	24
Animal models of lean metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD): bridging pathogenesis and novel drug discovery	24
Drug design strategies for the treatment azole-resistant candidiasis	24
Revisiting experimental models of erectile dysfunction and their value in drug discovery and development	24
An overview of the preclinical discovery and development of tezepelumab for the treatment of asthma	23
What are the challenges with multi-targeted drug design for complex diseases?	23
PTPN22: structure, function, and developments in inhibitor discovery with applications for immunotherapy	22
High performance-oriented computer aided drug design approaches in the exascale era	22
Targeted Degradation of Structured RNAs via Ribonuclease-Targeting Chimeras (RiboTacs)	22
The human NTG model of migraine in drug discovery and development	21
Advances in the design, discovery, and optimization of aurora kinase inhibitors as anticancer agents	21
Mapping strategies towards improved external validity in preclinical translational research	21
Designing multi-target drugs for the treatment of major depressive disorder	21
Unmasking allosteric-binding sites: novel targets for GPCR drug discovery	20
Advances in structure-activity relationships of HDAC inhibitors as HIV latency-reversing agents	20
A comprehensive update on the application of high-throughput fluorescence imaging for novel drug discovery	20
An overview on small molecules acting as broad-spectrum agents for yellow fever infection	20
Metabolomics in antimicrobial drug discovery	20
Advances in the discovery of new chemotypes through ultra-large library docking	20
Avenues for antifungal drug discovery and development: where to now?	19
Targeting protein-protein interactions with low molecular weight and short peptide modulators: insights on disease pathways and starting points for drug discovery	19
Latest developments in engineered skeletal muscle tissues for drug discovery and development	19
In silico drug design strategies for discovering novel tuberculosis therapeutics	19
Data processing for high-throughput mass spectrometry in drug discovery	19
Novel avenues for identification of new antifungal drugs and current challenges	19
How do drug discovery scientists address the unmet need of long COVID syndrome therapeutics and what more can be done?	19
Advancing AI-driven drug discovery: an interview with Professor Alan Talevi	18
From algorithms to systems: integrating computation into drug discovery	18
The preclinical discovery and development of zanubrutinib for the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia	18
The latest advances in high content screening in microfluidic devices	18
Innovative drug discovery strategies in epilepsy: integrating next-generation syndrome-specific mouse models to address pharmacoresistance and epileptogenesis	18
The integration of AI in fragment-based lead discovery and medicinal chemistry – an interview with professor György M Keserű	18
The role of rodent behavioral models of schizophrenia in the ongoing search for novel antipsychotics	18
The preclinical discovery and clinical development of ciltacabtagene autoleucel (Cilta-cel) for the treatment of multiple myeloma	17

What is the future of click chemistry in drug discovery and development?	17
Efflux in Gram-negative bacteria: what are the latest opportunities for drug discovery?	17
Lessons learned from the failure of solanezumab as a prospective treatment strategy for Alzheimer’s disease	16
The impact of CD3 affinity-attenuation on T cell engaging bispecific antibodies: is it really that simple?	16
Preclinical models of insomnia: advances, limitations, and future directions for drug discovery	16
Artificial intelligence for small molecule anticancer drug discovery	16
Investigating novel pharmacological strategies for treatment-resistant depression: focus on new mechanisms and approaches	16
The problem of antimalarial resistance and its implications for drug discovery	16
Recent animal models of bladder cancer and their application in drug discovery: an update of the literature	16
Molecular glue degraders: exciting opportunities for novel drug discovery	16
Library size in virtual screening: is it truly a number’s game?	15
Where do we go next in antidepressant drug discovery? A new generation of antidepressants: a pivotal role of AMPA receptor potentiation and mGlu2/3 receptor antagonism	15
Understanding the role of cGAS-STING signaling in ischemic stroke: a new avenue for drug discovery	15
Current views on in vivo models for breast cancer research and related drug development	15
Long non-coding RNA-targeting therapeutics: discovery and development update	15
3D bioprinting for organ and organoid models and disease modeling	15
Lessons learnt from machine learning in early stages of drug discovery	14
Using automated patch clamp electrophysiology platforms in ion channel drug discovery: an industry perspective	14
Strategies for the drug discovery and development of taxane anticancer therapeutics	14
Have spirocyclic scaffolds been properly utilized in recent drug discovery efforts?	14
Designing drugs when there is low data availability: one-shot learning and other approaches to face the issues of a long-term concern	14
Validation guidelines for drug-target prediction methods	14
Targeting guanine nucleotide exchange factors for novel cancer drug discovery	14
Synthetic oxetanes in drug discovery: where are we in 2025?	13
Linkers in fragment-based drug design: an overview of the literature	13
Leveraging molecular dynamics simulations to study psychedelics and their receptors in future drug development	13
Role of computational and structural biology in the development of small-molecule modulators of the spliceosome	13
Understanding the structure of measles virus and its implications for novel drug discovery	13
Animal models of Kabuki syndrome and their applicability to novel drug discovery	13
Challenges with the discovery of RNA-based therapeutics for flaviviruses	13
Perspectives on the success of plasma lipidomics in cardiovascular drug discovery and future challenges	13
Advances in determining new treatments for hepatitis B infection by utilizing existing and novel biomarkers	13
Open resources for chemical probes and their implications for future drug discovery	13
Fragment-based approaches to discover ligands for tumor-specific E3 ligases	13
Complementary strategies to be used in conjunction with animal models for multiple sclerosis drug discovery: adapting preclinical validation of drug candidates to the need of remyelinating strategies	13