Chemical biology approaches for the study of apicomplexan parasites

•Small molecules are powerful tools to study parasite biology.•Phenotypic screens using libraries of small molecules can uncover novel biology.•Bioorthogonal chemistries expand the toolbox of modern chemical biologists.•Diversity-oriented synthesis will promote exploration of new regions of biological space.

Chemical biology and the techniques the field encompasses provide scientists with the means to address biological questions in ever-evolving and technically sophisticated ways. They facilitate the dissection of molecular mechanisms of cell phenomena on timescales not achievable by other means. Libraries of small molecules, bioorthogonal chemistries and technical advances in mass-spectrometry techniques enable the modern chemical biologist to tackle even the most difficult of biological questions. It is because of their broad applicability that these approaches are well suited to systems less tractable to more classical genetic methods. As such, the parasite community has embraced them with great success. Some of these successes and the continuing evolution of chemical biology applied to apicomplexans will be discussed.

Graphical abstractSmall molecules form the foundation of many chemical biology approaches aimed at dissecting basic biology in complex systems such as Toxoplasma gondii and Plasmodium falciparum.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload high-quality image (127 K)Download as PowerPoint slide