Drugs targeting retinoid receptors have been developed to treat a variety of therapeutic indications, but their success has been limited in part due to lack of selectivity. A novel functional cell-based assay R-SATtrade mark was employed to screen a small molecule chemical library and identify a variety of novel RAR agonists with various subtype selectivities, including RARbeta/gamma and RARgamma selective agonists. A novel class of synthetic compounds that distinguishes between the different RARbeta isoforms is described. This pharmacophore displays anti-proliferative activity and induces differentiation in a neuronal cell line, consistent with a classical retinoid mechanism of action while providing unique subtype selectivity. These novel subtype selective RAR agonists could serve as powerful tools to probe into subtype and isoform-specific retinoid function.