search_chembl_target
Find biological drug targets (proteins, receptors, enzymes) by name, gene, or UniProt ID in ChEMBL. Returns target type, organism, and ChEMBL ID.
Instructions
Search for a biological TARGET (protein/receptor/enzyme) in ChEMBL.
⚠️ DO NOT use this tool to look up drugs, compounds, or molecules by name.
For drug/compound/molecule names (e.g., "sorafenib", "imatinib", "aspirin"),
use search_chembl_molecule instead.
This tool searches for biological entities that drugs act upon — proteins, protein complexes, nucleic acids, organisms, tissues, and cell lines. "Target" here means drug target, NOT "the thing I am looking up".
Only the search string and limit are supported. The search string can be
passed as any of: query (canonical), search, term, keyword,
keywords, search_term, or name.
Args: query (str): Search query string referring to a biological target. Examples: - Target name (e.g., "Thrombin", "EGFR", "Dopamine receptor") - Gene name (e.g., "BRCA1", "TP53") - UniProt accession (e.g., "P00734") - Organism name (e.g., "Homo sapiens") limit (int, optional): Maximum number of results to return. Defaults to 20.
Returns: dict: Dictionary containing: - 'total_count' (int): Total number of matching targets found - 'results' (list): List of target dictionaries, each containing: - 'chembl_id' (str): ChEMBL target identifier (e.g., "CHEMBL1824") - 'name' (str): Preferred target name - 'organism' (str): Organism name (e.g., "Homo sapiens") - 'type' (str): Target type (e.g., "SINGLE PROTEIN", "PROTEIN COMPLEX") - 'score' (float): Relevance score for the search query
Example: >>> results = await search_chembl_target("EGFR human", limit=5) >>> print(f"Found {results['total_count']} targets") >>> for target in results['results']: ... print(f"{target['chembl_id']}: {target['name']} ({target['organism']})")
Output:
Found 15 targets
CHEMBL203: Epidermal growth factor receptor (Homo sapiens)Target Types: - SINGLE PROTEIN: Individual protein target - PROTEIN COMPLEX: Multi-protein complex - PROTEIN FAMILY: Group of related proteins - NUCLEIC-ACID: DNA/RNA targets - TISSUE: Tissue-level target - CELL-LINE: Cell line target - ORGANISM: Whole organism target
Raises: httpx.HTTPError: If the API request fails
Input Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| query | No | ||
| limit | No | ||
| search | No | ||
| term | No | ||
| keyword | No | ||
| keywords | No | ||
| search_term | No | ||
| name | No |
Output Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
No arguments | |||