Title: primary screen
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - primary screen
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.14184
Status: current

Definition
Initial screen applied to assess the activity of a collection of compounds and identify hits or actives against a biological target of interest.

Note
This screen identifies hits or actives from a library.

Related Terms
- actives: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/14105
- library: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/14157
- secondary screen: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/14191

Source
- PAC, 2011, 83, 1129. 'Glossary of terms used in biomolecular screening (IUPAC Recommendations 2011)' on page 1152 (https://doi.org/10.1351/PAC-REC-09-05-03)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/14184/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/14184/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/14184/xml

Citation: Citation: 'primary screen' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.14184
License: The IUPAC Gold Book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SA 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) for individual terms.
Collection: If you are interested in licensing the Gold Book for commercial use, please contact the IUPAC Executive Director at executivedirector@iupac.org .
Disclaimer: The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is continuously reviewing and, where needed, updating terms in the Compendium of Chemical Terminology (the IUPAC Gold Book). Users of these terms are encouraged to include the version of a term with its use and to check regularly for updates to term definitions that you are using.
Accessed: 2026-07-25T20:59:14+00:00