Drug Discovery Based on Non-Mammalian Models
A special issue of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049). This special issue belongs to the section "Medicinal Chemistry".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 December 2026 | Viewed by 108
Editor
Interests: fruit fly; disease model; pharmacology; toxicology; nature products
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Non-mammalian models, covering zebrafish, Drosophila melanogaster, Caenorhabditis elegans and other classical systems, are irreplaceable platforms for contemporary drug discovery, boasting distinct merits that fill the gaps of conventional mammalian models. These models stand out for short reproductive cycles, high genetic homology with humans, easy genetic manipulation, low experimental cost and high ethical compliance, enabling high-throughput drug screening, precise target validation and rapid toxicity evaluation at the preclinical stage, which greatly boosts the efficiency of early drug development.
To a large extent, the progress and breakthroughs of drug discovery rely on the rational application of non-mammalian models, the accurate construction of disease-related phenotypes, and the clarification of drug action mechanisms in these systems. It is the in-depth research on these fronts that turns non-mammalian models into powerful tools for screening potential drug candidates and optimizing lead compounds, effectively cutting down the failure rate of drug development in the later period and promoting the translation of basic research to clinical application. Moreover, the rapid development of emerging biotechnologies, such as gene editing, AI-assisted drug design, and spatiotemporal omics technology, and their tight integration with traditional animal models have further unlocked the application potential of non-mammalian models, making them more compatible with modern drug research and development systems.
This is why a systematic grasp of model construction, drug screening protocols and mechanism analysis based on non-mammalian systems is vital for pushing forward innovative drug discovery. For this Special Issue, we welcome high-quality contributions focusing on the applications of non-mammalian models in drug discovery, including model optimization, target identification, drug activity screening, toxicity assessment and mechanism exploration. Suitable submissions will range from fundamental mechanism studies to practical translational research linking these models with clinical drug development.
Dr. Yiwen Wang
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- disease models
- drug discovery
- zebrafish
- drosophila melanogaster
- caenorhabditis elegans
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