Resolution of cellular physiology by genomic expression signature analysis: Bridging the content gap between in vitro and in vivo drug development

Genomic expression profiling provides a high‐content means of characterizing the physiological action of drugs at the cellular systems biology level. By recognizing the distinct gene expression patterns that characterize various cellular states, it is possible to classify unknown drug treatments by the therapeutically relevant physiology they induce. Because the range of cellular physiologies is wide, and the resolution of expression profiling is comprehensive, this pattern recognition–based approach represents a generic means of drug action analysis and prediction. Drug candidate efficacy, specificity, and toxicity can be determined early in drug development, streamlining a process currently fraught with costly attrition and deficient in generating mechanistically new therapeutics. Drug Dev. Res. 62:119–123, 2004. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.