**2.1 Chemical probes**

*Cheminformatics and Its Applications*

discovered nitrous oxide gas in 1772 and incubated the mice with "airs" (the gases discovered till that time). He used 10 gases including nitrous oxide on experimental mice. His experiments on mice faced a strong mass discontent from Americans who showed a sympathetic behavior towards animal rights. Thus, the first chemical

Afterwards, another chemist, Humphry Davy, worked (1778–1829) on the newly isolated and unfamiliar gases at that time. Frightened by the previous experiment, Humphry completely omitted the use of mice and decided to carry out the research on himself. It was not a matter of surprise that one of the gases, carbon monoxide, proved fatal for the scientist, but the pleasant effect of nitrous oxide made him name this gas, "the laughing gas." He also investigated the use of this gas in medical surgeries. Samuel Taylor also documented this gas as a pleasure-making gas [4], but the practical use of this gas in medicine was described in 1844 by an American

biologist fell a prey to angry mob due to his experiment on mice [3].

**128**

**Figure 1.**

*History of chemical biology with its eminent events.*

Chemical probes are the small molecules which bind to the specific targeted sites and initiate their cellular activities. These archetypal tools act as highly valued reagents for molecular- and genetic-level biological research. Chemical probes are helpful in the accurate investigation of biological pathways and their associated targets [10].
