The Chemical Probes Portal-2026: expanding and enhancing this expert review-based public resource to sustain chemical probe selection and application in bioscience.

Abstract

The Chemical Probes Portal (https://www.chemicalprobes.org) is an open, international, resource empowering scientific robustness by supporting responsible research using chemical probes. The Portal informs best-practice in the selection and application of small-molecule chemical probes through expert review, manual curation, and community engagement. Used correctly, high-quality chemical probes are powerful, versatile research tools enabling the fundamental study of protein function, target validation, and development of new therapeutics. Conversely, the inappropriate selection and use of these chemical tools can compromise experimental interpretation, reliability, and translational impact, highlighting the need for trusted advisory resources. The Portal addresses this challenge, providing a unique collection of curated data, expert reviews, and related guidance. We describe significant developments to the Portal's content and infrastructure. We have substantially expanded the content, with curated probes increasing by 26% since our last update. We have significantly enhanced website functionality through implementation of new, more informative probe pages, improved search tools and enhancements in data accessibility, machine readability, and interoperability. Together, these developments strengthen the Portal as a trustworthy, user-friendly provider of expert-reviewed chemical probe information and an increasingly valuable source of gold-standard FAIR, accessible data in the era of AI-assisted information discovery, underpinning reliable bioscience research.