Microfluidic systems to study the biology of human diseases and identify potential therapeutic targets in caenorhabditis elegans

Drug discovery is the process of identifying drugs for human diseases. Typically, this involves screening for a large number of chemical compounds against certain targets in cells using in vitro and in vivo disease models [1]. In general, the process includes five stages: target identification and validation, lead screening, optimization, preclinical development, and clinical trials. A protein or biochemical pathway that plays a key role in the origin or progression of the disease is identified in the target identification and validation stage. The lead screening stage involves screening of a large number of chemical compounds against the biomolecular target protein or gene in order to identify candidates with potential therapeutic effect. This is followed by an optimization stage in which small chemical modifications of the initial lead compounds are made and screened to produce an optimal chemical species. The preclinical stage involves testing the candidates in various other animal models for efficacy as well as toxicity, and finally, in the clinical stage, testing is carried out in humans on a smaller scale. If successful, the drug is made commercially available in the market.