A multi-faceted approach to the advancement of cell-based drug discovery By Dr Ralph J. Garippa Cell-based assays, particularly those involving the use of microscopic imaging, are undergoing a renaissance within many pharma and biotech drug development programmes. Much of this has to do with the licensing, partnering and… Read More
Label-Free Detection – New biosensors facilitate broader range of drug discovery applications By Dr John Comley This article highlights some of the findings of a recent market report on labelfree detection trends. In particular, it looks at the current perception, main use and biggest benefit of label-free detection… Read More
GENE EXPRESSION as a toxicological screening tool By Dr Bruce Seligmann The use of microarray data in drug development and requirements for FDA audit and approval. Toxicological safety testing of compounds has not yet advanced to the point where measurement of gene expression… Read More
Tissue Microarray (TMA) – A step ahead in drug discovery By Dr CR Camozzi Estimation of the clinical importance, market size and therapy-related side-effects are key questions in drug development. The ever-rising costs of drug discovery and development ($800-1,500 million for a successful drug research project) together with… Read More
The impact of early ADME profiling on drug discovery and development strategy By Dr Jianling Wang and Dr Laszlo Urban The increased costs in the discovery and development of new drugs, due in part to the high attrition rate of drug candidates in development, has led to… Read More
Radiosynthesis – A vital role supporting drug development? By Dave Roberts and Professor Bill Lockley The key in vivo drug metabolism and pharmacokinetic studies continue to be undertaken using radiolabelled versions of drug molecules. Traditionally, the preparation of these isotopically labelled compounds was largely the domain of specialist… Read More
The Case for Multiplex Protein Assays By Dr Robert Huang and Dr Diem Nguyen Multiplex testing has gained a growing popularity among scientists, mainly due to financial and competitive pressures forcing companies to narrow their targets and validate their leads as quickly as possible. Read More
Applications of liquid chromatography mass spectrometry By Dr David Kwok Applications of liquid chromatography mass spectrometry in accelerating the pace of lead-drug candidate selection and pre-clinical development. This review discusses how the application and benefits of using LC/MS and LC/MS/MS assays in conjunction with… Read More
Structural Genomics drives demand for high throughput protein purification By Karsten Fjarstedt The rapid growth in proteomic and structural and functional genomic research is driving demand for purified proteins that far exceeds the industry’s ability to scale-up conventional protein production technologies. This demand has… Read More
Expanding the profile of Kinase Panels By Dr John Comley With little sign of a decline in Pharma interest in kinase targets, greater emphasis is now being directed towards kinase selectivity profiling. A recent industry market survey suggests that although the market for kinase primary screening reagents is… Read More
Failure rates in drug discovery and development: will we ever get any better? By William Bains Drug discovery is an expensive, slow and risky business. An analysis which takes into account projects which neither succeed nor fail suggests that it costs more than $1 billion to launch a… Read More
Getting Property Strategy Right in Biotech By Martin Sylvester The global biotech industry is, according to a recent report by Ernst & Young, ‘turning up’ despite a relatively subdued recent climate. Recovery in the biotech sector during 2003 was almost six months ahead of predictions and overall growth… Read More
Functional screening of viral siRNA libraries in human primary cells By Dr Kara Bortone, Dr Frits Michiels, Dr Nick Vandeghinste, Dr Peter Tomme and Dr Helmuth van Es One of the major challenges facing the pharmaceutical industry today is the identification and validation of novel, high-quality drugable targets… Read More
Novel concepts and therapeutic options for the treatment of schizophrenia By Dr Karoly Nikolich and Dr Roman Urfer Schizophrenia affects a large number of individuals irrespective of social status and education. Current treatments of schizophrenia represent the second largest central nervous system (CNS) pharmaceutical market, exceeding $12 billion… Read More
Metabonomics – A generic platform for the investigation of drug toxicity, altered gene function and disease processes By Professor Jeremy K. Nicholson Metabonomics can offer one of the most complete solutions to tackling one of the pharmaceutical industry’s biggest problems attrition. This article discusses the scope and… Read More
Continued miniaturisation of assay technologies drives market for nanolitre dispensing By Dr John Comley The continued miniaturisation of assay technologies in high throughput screening, compound management and protein crystallisation has created a pressing need for improved nanolitre liquid handling systems. A recent industry… Read More
