This web page was produced as an assignment for Genetics 564, an undergraduate capstone course at UW-Madison
What is chemical genetics?
Chemical genetics is the use of small organic molecules to learn about proteins. Small organic molecules can be designed to bind to a specific protein and block its function. This allows researchers to determine what role the protein is playing in the cell. Small organic molecules can be advantageous over other methods of knocking down genes as they can have greater specificity and precision. They can be designed to inhibit only specific parts of a protein and allow researchers greater temporal control over the knockdown effect. Small organic molecules can also be used as drugs to inhibit the function of protein that is contributing to a disease. [1]
Conclusions
Pubchem database contains information about small molecules. No information was found pertaining to MSH6 on Pubchem. This makes a chemical screen of molecules affecting MSH6 activity a potential future direction of research.