Chemical Biology and Pharmacology

Fall 2025, a new conference focusing on collaborations and innovative discoveries in pharmacology, InnoPharm, was held in San Francisco. It was organized by CO-IN Symposia and led by Gayatri Srinivas. Because many of the presentations featured state-of-the-art chemical biology, two attendees—Professors Debbie C. Crans and Urszula Komarnicka—developed this Research Topic entitled “Chemical Biology and Pharmacology,” highlighting the many areas where pharmacology and chemical biology overlap. Contributions describe methods and approaches in chemical biology applied to explore molecular mechanisms in pharmacology, involving therapeutic treatments of diseased states and comparisons to natural states. This includes the science of biological and physiological systems, the modes of action of drugs, pharmacokinetics with all ADME processes, and pharmacodynamics, as well as novel methods in drug development, medicinal chemistry, structural studies, and proteomics. The issue features work using a range of experimental and theoretical techniques, including machine learning, AI, and big data.

This Research Topic highlights scientific contributions that encompass both chemical biology and pharmacology, investigating disease and therapeutic treatments. Because both fields involve biological and physiological systems and depend on the chemistry within these systems, their combination is natural. The topics therefore include a range of chemical and pharmaceutical approaches used to understand mammalian and human systems, their diseases, and the treatments developed to eradicate these conditions. We highlight methods used in medicinal chemistry, proteomics, and both experimental and in silico drug discovery to investigate molecular and cellular mechanisms in diverse biological and physiological systems.

The main theme of the contributions is state-of-the-art research in chemical biology and pharmacology, therefore suitable topics cover a wide range. Topics featured at the conference and represented in this Research Topic include, but are not limited to:

• Medicinal chemistry
• Peptide-based tools for novel therapeutic development
• Proteomics,
• Immune therapeutics
• Applications of in silico methods, machine learning, and liquid adaptive AI in drug discovery.

Other topics are welcome - provided they engage both chemical biology and pharmacology - even if they were not featured at the conference, and researchers who did not participate are also encouraged to submit.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Review

Keywords: Chemical Biology; Proteins, enzymes; receptors; cellular uptake; interfaces; pharmacology; ADME therapeutics; mode of action; drug discovery

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.