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 2022-01-01 to 2026-01-01.)

Article	Citations
Lessons learned from phenotypic drug discovery efforts	176
Advances in the discovery of drugs that treat pulmonary arterial hypertension	148
Advances in ion channel high throughput screening: where are we in 2023?	112
Reality check: lipid-oligonucleotide conjugates for therapeutic applications	93
γ-Secretase: once and future drug target for Alzheimer’s disease	68
Discovery of novel cathepsin K inhibitors for osteoporosis treatment using a deep learning-based strategy	66
Polypharmacology prediction: the long road toward comprehensively anticipating small-molecule selectivity to de-risk drug discovery	45
What is the plausibility that all drugs will be designed by computers by the end of the decade?	43
Scaffold hopping approaches for dual-target antitumor drug discovery: opportunities and challenges	42
Methods in marine natural product drug discovery: what’s new?	41
Strategies for targeting RNA with small molecule drugs	41
A comprehensive update on the use of molecular topology applications for anti-infective drug discovery	40
Bisquinoline as a promising scaffold in anti-infective drug discovery: the current state of the art and future prospects	38
Tools and techniques for the discovery of therapeutic aptamers: recent advances	38
Understanding the impact of binding free energy and kinetics calculations in modern drug discovery	35
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	35
Designing drugs against leishmaniasis: is targeting the sterol biosynthesis pathway the answer?	35
The potential of microfluidic platforms for neuron differentiation and pain modeling in novel drug discovery	34
Phenotypic screening for new heart failure therapeutics: scalable animal modeling in zebrafish	33
A cautionary tale of paradox and false positives in cannabidiol research	32
Novel insights into structure–activity relationships of kynurenine 3-monooxygenase inhibitors (KMOis) with emphasis on chemical space, activity landscape exploration	32
The rules often neglected in current medicinal chemistry	32
C. elegans : a prominent platform for modeling and drug screening in neurological disorders	30
Acoustic ejection mass spectrometry: fundamentals and applications in high-throughput drug discovery	29
Virtual screening: hope, hype, and the fine line in between	29

An update on knowledge graphs and their current and potential applications in drug discovery	29
Water in drug design: pitfalls and good practices	28
Calcium channel blockers’ contribution to overcoming Current drug discovery challenges in Alzheimer’s disease	28
Molecular hybridization: a powerful tool for multitarget drug discovery	28
Current challenges and future perspectives of drug discovery in China	26
Murine models of dengue virus infection for novel drug discovery	25
The application of pancreatic cancer organoids for novel drug discovery	25
Correction	24
The discovery and development of RNA-based therapies for treatment of HIV-1 infection	24
Identifying novel drugs with new modes of action for neglected tropical fungal skin diseases (fungal skinNTDs) using an Open Source Drug discovery approach	24
Novel hydrogels: are they poised to transform 3D cell-based assay systems in early drug discovery?	24
Animal models of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and their role in drug discovery and development: a critical review	23
Recent applications of positron emission tomographic (PET) imaging in psychiatric drug discovery	23
Innovative strategies for the discovery of new drugs against alopecia areata: taking aim at the immune system	23
Revisiting experimental models of erectile dysfunction and their value in drug discovery and development	23
Drug design strategies for the treatment azole-resistant candidiasis	23
An overview of the preclinical discovery and development of tezepelumab for the treatment of asthma	22
Animal models of lean metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD): bridging pathogenesis and novel drug discovery	22
What are the challenges with multi-targeted drug design for complex diseases?	21
PTPN22: structure, function, and developments in inhibitor discovery with applications for immunotherapy	21
Lessons learned from the discovery and development of the sesquiterpene lactones in cancer therapy and prevention	21
Mapping strategies towards improved external validity in preclinical translational research	21
Inhibitors of the PLK1 polo-box domain: drug design strategies and therapeutic opportunities in cancer	21
A comprehensive update on the application of high-throughput fluorescence imaging for novel drug discovery	20
What have we learnt from past failures in Alzheimer’s disease drug discovery?	20
Advances in the design, discovery, and optimization of aurora kinase inhibitors as anticancer agents	20
Advances in the discovery of new chemotypes through ultra-large library docking	20
The human NTG model of migraine in drug discovery and development	20
Unmasking allosteric-binding sites: novel targets for GPCR drug discovery	20
Targeted Degradation of Structured RNAs via Ribonuclease-Targeting Chimeras (RiboTacs)	19
High performance-oriented computer aided drug design approaches in the exascale era	19
Avenues for antifungal drug discovery and development: where to now?	19
Metabolomics in antimicrobial drug discovery	19
An overview on small molecules acting as broad-spectrum agents for yellow fever infection	19
Designing multi-target drugs for the treatment of major depressive disorder	19
Latest developments in engineered skeletal muscle tissues for drug discovery and development	18
Data processing for high-throughput mass spectrometry in drug discovery	18
How do drug discovery scientists address the unmet need of long COVID syndrome therapeutics and what more can be done?	18
Novel avenues for identification of new antifungal drugs and current challenges	18
Targeting protein-protein interactions with low molecular weight and short peptide modulators: insights on disease pathways and starting points for drug discovery	17
Future prospects of accelerating neuroactive drug discovery with high-throughput behavioral phenotyping	17
Advances in structure-activity relationships of HDAC inhibitors as HIV latency-reversing agents	17
The preclinical discovery and development of zanubrutinib for the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia	17
What is the future of click chemistry in drug discovery and development?	17
In silico drug design strategies for discovering novel tuberculosis therapeutics	17
Innovative drug discovery strategies in epilepsy: integrating next-generation syndrome-specific mouse models to address pharmacoresistance and epileptogenesis	17
The role of rodent behavioral models of schizophrenia in the ongoing search for novel antipsychotics	16
Efflux in Gram-negative bacteria: what are the latest opportunities for drug discovery?	16
Artificial intelligence for small molecule anticancer drug discovery	16
The impact of CD3 affinity-attenuation on T cell engaging bispecific antibodies: is it really that simple?	16

From algorithms to systems: integrating computation into drug discovery	16
The latest advances in high content screening in microfluidic devices	16
The preclinical discovery and clinical development of ciltacabtagene autoleucel (Cilta-cel) for the treatment of multiple myeloma	16
The problem of antimalarial resistance and its implications for drug discovery	16
Strategies for the drug discovery and development of taxane anticancer therapeutics	15
Recent animal models of bladder cancer and their application in drug discovery: an update of the literature	15
Library size in virtual screening: is it truly a number’s game?	15
Lessons learned from the failure of solanezumab as a prospective treatment strategy for Alzheimer’s disease	15
Investigating novel pharmacological strategies for treatment-resistant depression: focus on new mechanisms and approaches	15
Validation guidelines for drug-target prediction methods	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
The design and discovery of topoisomerase I inhibitors as anticancer therapies	14
Preclinical models of insomnia: advances, limitations, and future directions for drug discovery	14
Long non-coding RNA-targeting therapeutics: discovery and development update	14
Molecular glue degraders: exciting opportunities for novel drug discovery	14
Have spirocyclic scaffolds been properly utilized in recent drug discovery efforts?	14
Current views on in vivo models for breast cancer research and related drug development	13
Challenges with the discovery of RNA-based therapeutics for flaviviruses	13
Synthetic oxetanes in drug discovery: where are we in 2025?	13
Targeting guanine nucleotide exchange factors for novel cancer drug discovery	13
Lessons learnt from machine learning in early stages of drug discovery	13
3D bioprinting for organ and organoid models and disease modeling	13
Fragment-based approaches to discover ligands for tumor-specific E3 ligases	13
Linkers in fragment-based drug design: an overview of the literature	13
Understanding the role of cGAS-STING signaling in ischemic stroke: a new avenue for drug discovery	13
Animal models of Kabuki syndrome and their applicability to novel drug discovery	13
Using automated patch clamp electrophysiology platforms in ion channel drug discovery: an industry perspective	13
Perspectives on the success of plasma lipidomics in cardiovascular drug discovery and future challenges	13
Open resources for chemical probes and their implications for future drug discovery	12
Advances in the design and discovery of next-generation janus kinase-2 (JAK2) inhibitors for the treatment of myeloproliferative neoplasms	12
In-silico epitope-based vaccines design: progress, challenges and the road ahead	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
Understanding the structure of measles virus and its implications for novel drug discovery	12
Approaches for development of LAG-3 inhibitors and the promise they hold as anticancer agents	12
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	12
Recent advances in cellular models for discovering prion disease therapeutics	12
Role of computational and structural biology in the development of small-molecule modulators of the spliceosome	12