Professor Chas Bountra explains how new drugs can offer novel treatments for neurodegenerative and gastrointestinal diseases, as well as pain disorders. Professor Chas Bountra is interested in identifying and validating target proteins for drug discovery. Various technologies and strategies have allowed him to progress promising clinical candidates into Phase I, II, III studies, and to market. Drug candidates are first selected by screening compounds capable of binding to a target protein. Those compounds are then tested in various assay systems, healthy volunteers and finally in patients. Academic research excels at defining good target proteins. Pharmaceutical companies then facilitate the transition from basic research to clinical trials, producing new therapies for patients.