[5][6] The approach was first proposed by Tim Mitchison in 1994 in an opinion piece in the journal Chemistry & Biology entitled "Towards a pharmacological genetics".
[8][9] Adding compounds to developing embryos allow comprehension of mechanism of action of drugs, their toxicity and developmental processes involving their targets.
Chemical screens have been mostly performed on either wild type or transgenic Xenopus and zebrafish organisms as they produce a large amount of synchronized, fast-to-develop and transparent eggs easy to visually score.
Firstly, it is easy to perform high-throughput screen using wide spectrum or specific target compounds and reveal important genes or pathways involved in developmental processes.
Procedures such as FETAX (Frog Embryo Teratogenesis Assay – Xenopus) are being developed to implement chemical screenings to test toxicity.