Nowadays we we design drugs rather than discovering them, using what we know about how diseases work to devise tactics to defeat them.
When the mechanism comes to light, it may be possible to design drugs that interfere with it so as to avert the risk.
The work of Dr. Bloch and Dr. Lynen eventually allowed researchers to design drugs called statins that block the process that produces cholesterol.
One way to avoid the risk of cancer, for example, would be to design drugs that interfere only with replicating viruses but not host cells.
"We're identifying genes that play a role in aging," Dr. Barzilai said, "and then we can design drugs to mimic their actions".
Properly managed, noninvasive use of our oceans might keep us safe until we are smart enough to design drugs with just our brains and computers.
Besides helping to determine the function of a protein, knowing its shape could also make it easier to design drugs that bind to the protein, turning it on or off.
If you have an enzyme that digests food … you want to understand how this is happening, and you can use it to design drugs, or in my case, to satisfy your curiosity.
They hope their experiments will allow them to unravel some of the genetic and neurological roots of stuttering and, in future, design drugs and treatments to help alleviate the disorder.
Essential Therapeutics of Waltham, Mass., which until a merger last month was known as Microcide Pharmaceuticals, is trying to design drugs to disable tiny pumps that bacteria use to eject antibiotics.
Your PC can help design drugs against AIDS, model the future climate of the planet, search for new prime numbers or simulate micro-devices for handling satellite propellant, to cite just a few examples.
