Archive |
Biotech 09 in Milan features partneringONE™
June 09
EBD Group today announced that Biotech 09, to be held at the Milan Fair Center-Rho, November 25–27, 2009 will feature partneringONE™ to facilitate partnering between event participants.
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Label Free Symposium comes to Baltimore
GE Healthcare will host ‘Current Trends in Microcalorimetry & Biacore Symposium 2009’, on October 18-21 at the Renaissance Harborplace Hotel, Baltimore, USA. The symposium offers delegates an exciting opportunity for exchange and discussion on all the latest developments in label-free molecular interaction analysis.more...
454 Celebrates a Revolution in Genomics
June 09
In September 2005, a paper published in the journal Nature introducing a novel, highly parallel sequencing system capable of producing 100-fold greater throughput than the state-of-the-art capillary electrophoresis instrument.
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Fast Pandemic Detection Tool Ready to Fight Flu
June 09
Agilent Technologies Inc announced researchers are developing new tools for rapidly characterizing biological pathogens that could give rise to potentially deadly pandemics such as Influenza A (H1N1). This is part of a joint effort by national laboratory-, university- and private-sector institutions.more...
Illumina Offers Personal Genome Sequencing
June 09
Illumina, Inc. has unveiled a service program to provide high-quality personal genome sequencing for consumers. This is the first service to offer complete coverage of the human genome sequence for under $50,000.
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Sigma Introduces Services Network
June 09
Customers can now conveniently access a collection of support services that can be used on a short or long term basis to accelerate their researchmore...
Microsoft Signs Agreement With Merck & Co. Inc.
June 09
Multifaceted agreement enhances Microsoft Amalga Life Sciences to accelerate basic research and drive personalized medicine.more...
Asia welcomes New Array Centre
June 09
Affymetrix, Inc. today announced the earlier-than-anticipated achievement of two key milestones in its plan to consolidate array manufacturing, set a new standard in reagent capabilities, and relocate US product distribution.
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Anagnostics smart multiplex diagnostics sets new standards
May 09
Since 2005 an ambitious team around the molecular geneticist Dr. Bernhard Ronacher have been developing a new multiplex diagnostics technique. Hybcell Tchnology is capableof analysing hundreds of features highly paralleled from samples like blood or saliva.more...
Albumin Fusion Technology
May 09
Human Genome Sciences, Inc. and Novozymes Biopharma, a part of Novozymes, today announced that they have amended an existing license agreement to allow both companies to expand application of their proprietary albumin fusion technology.more...
A cost effective solution to sample tracking
June 09
Brady’s Pro-Curo system is designed specifically for laboratory sample inventory, and is a cost effective, quick and easy way to track samples.
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Biotrove makes life alot easier with RapidFire
June 09
Decrease your in vitro ADME assay bottleneck by streamlining your drug discovery workflow with the RapidFire® 300 Mass Spec System optimized for in vitro ADME applications.
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Stem Cell applications and opportunities in drug discovery
By Dr Mark A. Thiede
The high attrition rate of late stage drug candidates has led the pharmaceutical and biotech industries to a reassess the in vitro models used to select and validate drug targets and subsequent lead molecules.
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The microplate market past, present and future
By Dr Peter Banks
Microplates and the peripheral markets of liquid handling and detection technologies exist within almost all laboratories performing assays. This article discusses what, if any, are their growth expectations and whether there are new technologies on the horizon that could make the microplate obsolete.
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GE Healthcare to Host ‘Current Trends in Microcalorimetry and Biacore Symposium’
Addressing functional characterization of biomolecular stability and interactions
GE Healthcare will host ‘Current Trends in Microcalorimetry and Biacore Symposium 2009’, on October 18-21 at the Renaissance Harborplace Hotel, Baltimore, MD, USA. The symposium offers delegates an exciting opportunity for exchange and discussion on all the latest developments in label-free molecular interaction analysis.more...
SMI's Inaugural qPCR & Transcriptional Profiling Conference
June 15-16 2009
With increasing applications in research to provide sensitive quantitative measurements of gene expression, including SNP genotyping, mutation detection and quantification, and gene dosage studies, quantitative polymerase chain reaction technology (qPCR) could soon be the standard for determining the genetic changes in response to a pharmacological agent. more...
Walton Davies International needs you!
Various positions to fill within the Pharma area.
Walton Davies International is looking for candidates with experience in Regulatory Affairs, Pharmacovigilance, Clinical Trials, Medical Writing, Account Management and Business Operations Analysis.Please send your CV to Jackie Peck quoting ref DDW/WDI
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Regional Account Manager - Genomics and Proteomics
Salary: 50-70,000 Euros OTE, Car
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New Transcreener ADP FP Assay performed on BMG Labtech's PHERAStar Plus HTS Microplate Reader.
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HTRF IP - ONE Terbium based Assays performed on BMG Labtech's PHERASTAR Plus
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Dispense & Imaging Assays
By Dr John Comley
Progress towards the uptake and adoption of flash luminescence readouts in screening were the subject of HTStec’s recent Dispense & Imaging (D&I) Trends 2007 report. The report suggests that the transition process may be less of a displacement of fluorescence with flash luminescence, but rather a wider more balanced implementation of both readouts.
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Where the (drug) action really is; progress in systems-based analysis of Cellular Signalling
By Dr Jeffrey A. Radding
Drug discovery currently focuses on targeted approaches, relying on validation of the target as a disease driver. However, the underlying biological complexity of disease often frustrates these attempts at therapeutic intervention, resulting in high failure rates due to lack of efficacy.
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LEAN SIX SIGMA its application to drug discovery
By Clare Hammond and Charles J O’Donnell
In an increasingly competitive world, the race between pharmas to get high quality candidate drugs to market is on. Contributing to this success is the discovery phase of lead optimisation. The application of Lean and Six Sigma processes have, until now, been theorised to benefit the improvement in the rate at which drugs progress through to development and improve the quality of the clinical candidates1. It is the objective of this communication to demonstrate that this is indeed possible.
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Outsourcing for innovation takes on new meaning
By Richard Boehner
Large pharmaceutical companies are moving quickly to outsource their drug discovery operations, predominantly to lower costs. This article argues that if outsourcing is done to capture value, ie developing and preserving intellectual property as a key competitive differentiation as well as increasing productivity, then costs will fall in line accordingly.
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Microwave-Assisted Orgainc Synthesis an Enabling Technology with Disruptive Potential.
Fall 2008
Since the original publications on the benefits of conducting organic reactions in a microwave by Gedye1 and Majetich2 in the mid-80s, the uptake of this technique was sluggish at best for the next 12-14 years.
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Progress in the Implementation of Label-Free Detection - part 1: cell-based assays
Summer 08
Progress made in the use of impedance and optical grating technologies for label-free detection of cell-based assays where examined in HTStec’s recent Cell-Based Label-Free Detection Trends 2008 report.
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Integrating HTS and fragment-based drug discovery
Summer 2008
High-Throughput Screening and Fragment Based Drug Discovery have been considered as alternative approaches to drug discovery for enzyme targets.
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High content screening – the next challenge: effective data mining and exploration
By Dr Kurt Zingler and Dr Stephan Heyse
The use of high content screening within HTS is growing and with many past hurdles now overcome, the need for effective tools for data analysis is becoming paramount.
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Data Overflow Progress in Automating and Streamlining Data
Summer 2008
The genomic world moves faster and faster. The pool of data has exploded exponentially in the past few years due to the growing knowledge about the relevance of genomic findings for medicine and the environment. Like all other developing industries, the trend in genomics is about producing more in a shorter amount of time with a higher quality. What genomics researchers need today are tools to effectively and efficiently turn this data into meaningful information. The processing of results and the learning curve from these results need to be more efficient. Intelligent bioinformatics and flexible methods are the most crucial factors for success in science these days.
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Biomarker signal definition
By Dr Gordon F. Kapke and Dr Nigel Brown
Due to the numerous challenges in the industry, pharmaceutical companies are examining all aspects of the drug development process and rebuilding theirassociated business models as necessary. more...
The Personalized Medicine Coalition
The Case for Personalized Medicine, Second Edition
The Personalized Medicine Coalition (PMC), representing a broad spectrum of academic, industrial, patient, provider, and payer communities, seeks to advance the understanding and adoption of personalized medicine concepts and products for the benefit of patients. more...
Is amyloid-related toxicity an inevitable consequence of ageing?
By Dr J Mark Treherne and Dr David IC Scopes
Amyloid-related toxicity need not necessarily be the inevitable consequence of ageing, if some of the new drug discovery strategies to treat neurodegenerative and other ageing-related diseases succeed in the clinic.
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Advances in antibody therapy take a promising new approach to how we treat cancer
By Dr Patrick A Baeuerle
Antibodies available today for cancer treatment, while effective, are typically used in combination with standard therapies because their activity as monotherapy is limited.
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The importance of liquid handling quality assurance through the drug discovery process
By Dr Nathaniel G Hentz
The tug-of-war between quality and productivity is an issue facing all drug discovery companies, competing in a fierce race to bring breakthrough drugs to market before the competition.
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a focus on MOLECULAR IMAGING
By Dr Ken Rubenstein
By combining cutting-edge biomedical research with the time-proven ability to visualise the unseen, the rapidly emerging field of molecular imaging promises to open new vistas for a wide range of individuals, from basic researchers to scientists working in drug discovery and development and to physicians in medical practice.
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Removal of Contaminating Genomic DNA in QRT-PCR using a Shrimp Nuclease
Nicky Quipse, Saima Naveed Nayab and Ian Kavanagh
DNA contamination can often occur in quantitative reverse transcription – polymerase chain reactions (QRT-PCR), and should be removed in order to avoid false positive results. DNase I is commonly used for removing DNA contamination, but this has a relatively long and harsh protocol which introduces an extra step between the isolation of RNA and the QRT-PCR reaction itself, as well as increasing the risk of RNA degradation due to the harsh inactivation conditions. An endonuclease from arctic shrimp Pandalus borealis has properties that make it useful for the removal of contaminating DNA. The endonuclease activity of the enzyme is specific to double stranded DNA, which therefore allows the enzyme to be added directly into the reverse transcription step. Unlike DNase I, the shrimp nuclease is easily inactivated at high temperatures, such as those used for the RT deactivation / hot start incubation step of a QRT-PCR reaction, and therefore can be used to selectively degrade double stranded DNA, leaving single stranded DNA and RNA intact.
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The Effect of Amplicon Charcteristics on the success of Fast QPCR
Gerwyn Jones, Sryana Kapavaparu, Saima Nayab and Ian Kavanagh
Employing fast QPCR cycling protocols is a simple and effective way of maximising throughput by reducing run durations. Fast cycling protocols can easily be achieved by reducing the temperature step dwell times.It has been reported that the use of fast QPCR protocols can result in a loss of sensitivity and greater inter-replicate variance with some assays. It is therefore important to realise that speeding up cycling protocols can be detrimental to the quality of results, but not in all cases. The factors which determine whether an assay can be successfully employed using fast cycling conditions are poorly understood.
The effect of three target amplicon characteristics on the success of fast QPCR was investigated using a panel of characterised assays. The amplicon characteristics focused on in particular were base-pair length, GC content and minimum ΔG at 60°C, the latter being a measure of the severity of amplicon secondary structure at the annealing temperature.
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