qPCR Assays – End user practices and latest vendor offerings By Dr John Comley This review provides an insight into real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR) assays today. Using end-user feedback it investigates interest in the targets for qPCR applications; primary application areas for qPCR… Read More
A Bronchoscopically Administered Therapeutic Approach to Advanced Emphysema By Dr Edward E. Berger Emphysema is a progressive, debilitating disease that affects approximately 4.1 million people in the United States or roughly 1% of the US population. The disease is characterised by destruction of lung tissue as a… Read More
Treating Rheumatoid Arthritis with Disease-Modifying Antirheumatic Drugs (DMARDs) and Biologics By Dr William E. Fogler Successful treatment paradigms for newly diagnosed rheumatoid arthritis (RA) now rely on aggressive pharmacotherapy approaches with disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs). Despite risks of toxicity and adverse effects, combination strategies with DMARDs are… Read More
By Dr Anil Vasudevan Since the original publications on the benefits of conducting organic reactions in a microwave by Gedye (1) and Majetich (2) in the mid-80s, the uptake of this technique was sluggish at best for the next 12-14 years. Read More
High Throughput Screening in Academia – Drug discovery initiatives at the University of Kansas By Dr P McDonald, Dr Roy, Byron Taylor, Ashleigh Price, Dr Sittampalam, Dr Scott Weir, Dr Chaguturu Academia has historically been involved in exploring the fundamental aspects of the disease targets and in… Read More
Next Generation Immunoassay Systems and the Revival of Protein Biomarkers By Dr John Todd and Dr Sara J. Agee Proteins are the machinery that drive most biological processes; however, measuring their concentrations at low levels has been historically impeded by a lack of appropriately sensitive technology. Read More
Prediction versus Attrition in Drug Discovery & Development By Professor Malcolm Young The research-intensive part of the pharmaceutical industry is facing unusual commercial difficulties, whose elements are now well-known. A substantial number of very valuable drugs have gone, or are about to go,… Read More
Challenges in Transferring Bioanalytical Methods By Dr Chris Beaver Drug development is arduous and expensive with any delay to market resulting in significant financial impact. Delays at any stage of the process cause challenges to programmes, however, some are easier to predict and plan for than others. Read More
Growing Interest in Outsourcing Ion Channel Services By Dr John Comley Summer 2008 Significant demand now exists in Pharma and Biotech to access ion channel testing services and this is reflected by the number and the variety of service offerings. In the highly competitive… Read More
Progress in the Implementation of Label-Free Detection – Cell-based assays By Dr John Comley 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 report. Uniquely all… Read More
Emerging Real-time PCR Applications Dr Mikael Kubista Since its introduction on the commercial market little more than 10 years ago, real-time PCR has become the main technical platform for nucleic acid detection in research and development, as well as in routine diagnostics. In 2007… Read More
Integrating HTS and Fragment-based Drug Discovery By Dr John Barker, Dr Thomas Hesterkamp and Dr Mark Whittaker High-Throughput Screening and Fragment Based Drug Discovery have been considered as alternative approaches to drug discovery for enzyme targets. HTS tends to be a rather quick way… Read More
Data Overflow Progress in Automating and Streamlining Data By Peer Staehler 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… Read More
Transcending Proteasome Inhibition for the Treatment of Cancer By Dr Mark Rolfe Healthy cellular function requires a carefully controlled balance between protein synthesis and protein degradation, a process known as protein homeostasis. The major intracellular pathway for controlling protein degradation is the ubiquitin proteasome system (UPS). Read More
Screening the Human Kinome – Expectations Met or Promises Pending? By Dr Richard M. Eglen Protein kinases are important targets in drug discovery programmes aimed at treating cancer, autoimmune disorders, diabetes and neurological disorders. Novel information on kinase biology is opening up other… Read More
HIV Therapy – Past, Present and Future By Dr Laura Waters Since the identification of HIV in 1983 and licensing of AZT in 1986 we now have more than 20 agents available for HIV treatment from five drug classes. This article will review recent advances in HIV treatment… Read More
