About this effort

What are probes?

These well-characterized small molecules are research tools designed to “probe” a specific biological target or disease. Most chemical probes are the product of a significant medicinal chemistry program and have undergone characterization to ensure that they are highly specific to the protein, target, or phenotype of interest. This characterization allows researchers to use probes to better understand pathways or diseases that involve these targets.

NCATS & Probe Development

The development of novel probes against under-explored targets has been a driving focus of NCATS and the Early Translation Branch since their inception as the NIH Chemical Genomics Center (NCGC). Our teams generally develop probes from high-throughput screening hits, which they modify and optimize for activity and specificity through rounds of medicinal chemistry and follow-up testing. Most importantly, NCATS aims to disseminate these probes and related findings by publishing research articles, depositing the underlying data in PubChem, and freely sharing these molecules for research purposes.

NCATS develops these probes to test therapeutic hypotheses, jump-start therapeutic development programs, and provide the broader scientific community with useful research tools, and is working to share these molecules as freely and as widely as possible. To date, NCATS researchers, in collaboration with hundreds of academic, nonprofit and private-sector scientists, have developed more than 70 probes that are freely available to the scientific community. Many of these molecules were developed and shared as part of the now-sunset Molecular Libraries Probe Production Centers Network (MLPCN), though NCATS continues to produce novel probes and share them with the scientific community.

NCATS Probes Request Portal

In support of this mission, NCATS has developed the Probe Request Portal website to showcase the molecules that have been developed by the branch, and to allow direct request of these tools. This site collects all ETB probes and lead molecules in one place and provides an easy-to-use form for scientists to request samples for their research needs.
NCATS strives to make limited samples of probe molecules available to investigators worldwide to support focused in vitro assay research, at no cost to them. To ensure equitable access to these compounds, availability is limited to 1 mg of powder per probe per laboratory, regardless of circumstance. However, NCATS can provide information on commercial suppliers for specific probes (where applicable) to enable further research. If the activity of a probe molecule appears promising to an investigator, a connection with NCATS scientists can be made to establish further collaboration and access to material.

Use of these probes

These samples are designed for in vitro research only and are not intended for human or animal use. Additionally, probe samples undergo QC analysis by NCATS where possible, however not all available samples have been analyzed; as such, NCATS cannot guarantee the purity and/or structural integrity of all compounds.

Contact

To learn more about probes, including research collaboration opportunities, please visit NCATS ETB or contact NCATS’ probes administrator ncatsprobes@mail.nih.gov