OOIR: Observatory of International Research

Papers

(The TQCC of Expert Opinion on Drug Discovery is 12. 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 2021-11-01 to 2025-11-01.)

Article	Citations
Lessons learned from phenotypic drug discovery efforts	159
Scaffold hopping approaches for dual-target antitumor drug discovery: opportunities and challenges	129
γ-Secretase: once and future drug target for Alzheimer’s disease	93
What is the plausibility that all drugs will be designed by computers by the end of the decade?	78
Advances in ion channel high throughput screening: where are we in 2023?	62
Reality check: lipid-oligonucleotide conjugates for therapeutic applications	54
Polypharmacology prediction: the long road toward comprehensively anticipating small-molecule selectivity to de-risk drug discovery	41
Discovery of novel cathepsin K inhibitors for osteoporosis treatment using a deep learning-based strategy	40
Advances in the discovery of drugs that treat pulmonary arterial hypertension	40
Strategies for targeting RNA with small molecule drugs	39
A comprehensive update on the use of molecular topology applications for anti-infective drug discovery	37
Tools and techniques for the discovery of therapeutic aptamers: recent advances	35
Methods in marine natural product drug discovery: what’s new?	34
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	34
Bisquinoline as a promising scaffold in anti-infective drug discovery: the current state of the art and future prospects	34
Understanding the impact of binding free energy and kinetics calculations in modern drug discovery	33
C. elegans : a prominent platform for modeling and drug screening in neurological disorders	32
Designing drugs against leishmaniasis: is targeting the sterol biosynthesis pathway the answer?	32
Novel insights into structure–activity relationships of kynurenine 3-monooxygenase inhibitors (KMOis) with emphasis on chemical space, activity landscape exploration	31
Acoustic ejection mass spectrometry: fundamentals and applications in high-throughput drug discovery	31
The potential of microfluidic platforms for neuron differentiation and pain modeling in novel drug discovery	29
Virtual screening: hope, hype, and the fine line in between	29
Phenotypic screening for new heart failure therapeutics: scalable animal modeling in zebrafish	28
A cautionary tale of paradox and false positives in cannabidiol research	27
Molecular hybridization: a powerful tool for multitarget drug discovery	27

The rules often neglected in current medicinal chemistry	27
Calcium channel blockers’ contribution to overcoming Current drug discovery challenges in Alzheimer’s disease	26
An update on knowledge graphs and their current and potential applications in drug discovery	26
Water in drug design: pitfalls and good practices	25
Current challenges and future perspectives of drug discovery in China	24
Drug design strategies for the treatment azole-resistant candidiasis	24
Murine models of dengue virus infection for novel drug discovery	23
The application of pancreatic cancer organoids for novel drug discovery	23
Identifying novel drugs with new modes of action for neglected tropical fungal skin diseases (fungal skinNTDs) using an Open Source Drug discovery approach	23
Recent applications of positron emission tomographic (PET) imaging in psychiatric drug discovery	22
Revisiting experimental models of erectile dysfunction and their value in drug discovery and development	22
Correction	22
Novel hydrogels: are they poised to transform 3D cell-based assay systems in early drug discovery?	22
The discovery and development of RNA-based therapies for treatment of HIV-1 infection	22
An overview of the preclinical discovery and development of tezepelumab for the treatment of asthma	21
Animal models of lean metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD): bridging pathogenesis and novel drug discovery	21
What are the challenges with multi-targeted drug design for complex diseases?	21
Innovative strategies for the discovery of new drugs against alopecia areata: taking aim at the immune system	20
High performance-oriented computer aided drug design approaches in the exascale era	20
Lessons learned from the discovery and development of the sesquiterpene lactones in cancer therapy and prevention	20
Animal models of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and their role in drug discovery and development: a critical review	20
Inhibitors of the PLK1 polo-box domain: drug design strategies and therapeutic opportunities in cancer	20
Metabolomics in antimicrobial drug discovery	19
Targeted Degradation of Structured RNAs via Ribonuclease-Targeting Chimeras (RiboTacs)	19
Advances in the discovery of new chemotypes through ultra-large library docking	19
PTPN22: structure, function, and developments in inhibitor discovery with applications for immunotherapy	19
A comprehensive update on the application of high-throughput fluorescence imaging for novel drug discovery	19
The human NTG model of migraine in drug discovery and development	19
What have we learnt from past failures in Alzheimer’s disease drug discovery?	19
Mapping strategies towards improved external validity in preclinical translational research	19
Designing multi-target drugs for the treatment of major depressive disorder	18
Unmasking allosteric-binding sites: novel targets for GPCR drug discovery	18
Advances in the design, discovery, and optimization of aurora kinase inhibitors as anticancer agents	18
Data processing for high-throughput mass spectrometry in drug discovery	17
Novel avenues for identification of new antifungal drugs and current challenges	17
An overview on small molecules acting as broad-spectrum agents for yellow fever infection	17
Avenues for antifungal drug discovery and development: where to now?	17
How do drug discovery scientists address the unmet need of long COVID syndrome therapeutics and what more can be done?	16
Lessons learned from the failure of solanezumab as a prospective treatment strategy for Alzheimer’s disease	16
The problem of antimalarial resistance and its implications for drug discovery	16
In silico drug design strategies for discovering novel tuberculosis therapeutics	16
The role of rodent behavioral models of schizophrenia in the ongoing search for novel antipsychotics	16
The latest advances in high content screening in microfluidic devices	16
Advances in structure-activity relationships of HDAC inhibitors as HIV latency-reversing agents	16
Latest developments in engineered skeletal muscle tissues for drug discovery and development	16
Targeting protein-protein interactions with low molecular weight and short peptide modulators: insights on disease pathways and starting points for drug discovery	16
Efflux in Gram-negative bacteria: what are the latest opportunities for drug discovery?	16
The discovery and development of novel treatment strategies for filoviruses	15
Future prospects of accelerating neuroactive drug discovery with high-throughput behavioral phenotyping	15
The impact of CD3 affinity-attenuation on T cell engaging bispecific antibodies: is it really that simple?	15

The preclinical discovery and development of zanubrutinib for the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia	15
Innovative drug discovery strategies in epilepsy: integrating next-generation syndrome-specific mouse models to address pharmacoresistance and epileptogenesis	15
The preclinical discovery and clinical development of ciltacabtagene autoleucel (Cilta-cel) for the treatment of multiple myeloma	15
Artificial intelligence for small molecule anticancer drug discovery	15
What is the future of click chemistry in drug discovery and development?	15
Investigating novel pharmacological strategies for treatment-resistant depression: focus on new mechanisms and approaches	14
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	14
Current views on in vivo models for breast cancer research and related drug development	14
Strategies for the drug discovery and development of taxane anticancer therapeutics	14
3D bioprinting for organ and organoid models and disease modeling	14
Recent animal models of bladder cancer and their application in drug discovery: an update of the literature	14
Long non-coding RNA-targeting therapeutics: discovery and development update	14
Understanding the role of cGAS-STING signaling in ischemic stroke: a new avenue for drug discovery	13
Have spirocyclic scaffolds been properly utilized in recent drug discovery efforts?	13
Animal models of Kabuki syndrome and their applicability to novel drug discovery	13
Molecular glue degraders: exciting opportunities for novel drug discovery	13
Library size in virtual screening: is it truly a number’s game?	13
Validation guidelines for drug-target prediction methods	13
Preclinical models of insomnia: advances, limitations, and future directions for drug discovery	13
The design and discovery of topoisomerase I inhibitors as anticancer therapies	13
Perspectives on the success of plasma lipidomics in cardiovascular drug discovery and future challenges	12
Recent advances in cellular models for discovering prion disease therapeutics	12
Lessons learnt from machine learning in early stages of drug discovery	12
Targeting guanine nucleotide exchange factors for novel cancer drug discovery	12
Designing drugs when there is low data availability: one-shot learning and other approaches to face the issues of a long-term concern	12
Is it possible to design a clinically viable heroin vaccine? The progress and pitfalls	12
Fragment-based approaches to discover ligands for tumor-specific E3 ligases	12
Open resources for chemical probes and their implications for future drug discovery	12
Challenges with the discovery of RNA-based therapeutics for flaviviruses	12
Using automated patch clamp electrophysiology platforms in ion channel drug discovery: an industry perspective	12
Linkers in fragment-based drug design: an overview of the literature	12