Role of image informatics in accelerating drug discovery and development By Robert Dunkle There is a new category of informatics that is proving itself essential to the acceleration of drug discovery and development. Image informatics is the systematic use of image data as a means to help interpret… Read More
Protease Inhibitor Therapeutics for Respiratory Disease By Dr Philip J. Barr Disruption of the natural equilibria between proteases and their cognate inhibitors is a common feature of inflammatory disease. When this occurs in the lung, the effects can lead to irreversible impairment of pulmonary function. Read More
New Flash Imagers: Facilitating higher throughput functional GPCR assays By Dr John Comley The recent availability of tailored automation solutions that combine liquid handling at the reading position with the latest innovations in low light imaging technology are providing screeners with new tools for the measurement of… Read More
Accommodating cells in HTS By Sandra Fox High Throughput Screening has become an important and integrated part of drug discovery at most pharmaceutical and many biotechnology companies worldwide, and is now entrenched in the drug discovery process. To produce high quality leads, centralised HTS… Read More
SCAVENGER strategies in organic synthesis – Part One By Professor Peter Wipf and Dr Claire M. Coleman Over the past 20 years combinatorial chemistry has proved to be an important tool for the generation of large numbers of compounds required for drug discovery programmes. This two-part article… Read More
Fewer drugs approved, more money spent – Where’s the beef? By G. Steven Burrill Three years ago, when biotech was at its Wall Street heights, personalised medicine and its promise were on everyone’s lips. Billions of dollars were being put to work to make targeted medicine a… Read More
By Dr Paul Charlton To negotiate the optimum terms and conditions for deals which ensure a truly ‘wise agreement’, one that is mutually beneficial, realistically implementable, profitable and can withstand the inevitable knocks and trials that present themselves at usually the most inconvenient of moments should… Read More
By Tim Ward Cell culture is and has historically been an essential component of the drug discovery toolbox. Cell culture provides the proteins, membrane preparations and other raw materials required for biological research. In recent years, with the emergence of high-throughput… Read More
Recent advances in mass spectrometry for drug discovery and development By Dr Nelson Cooke Of the numerous types of analytical techniques used in drug discovery and development, mass spectrometry (MS) has become one of the most powerful tools for the analyses of a wide range of chemical… Read More
DNA repair inhibition to treat cancer and other serious illnesses By Professor Stephen P. Jackson and Cheryl L. Bishop The stability of an organism’s genome is essential for healthy functioning and survival. The information content and integrity of the genome are so important that a range of maintenance… Read More
PATCHERS vs SCREENERS: divergent opinion on high throughput electro-physiology By Dr John Comley The prospect of enabling higher throughput electro-physiology (patch-clamping) has created much expectation from scientists within the ion channel community. Yet there are opposing views among traditional electro-physiologists and screeners as to the needed specification and… Read More
Urinary troubles for more than the ageing By Dr Anthony PDW Ford The needs of younger incontinence sufferers coupled with the ageing of the baby-boomer population portend a big boost in demand for effective and well tolerated new medicines for lower urinary-tract dysfunction. This… Read More
By Dr Steven Bodovitz and Dr Scott D. Patterson The potential for parallel protein-based analyses to define a new era in diagnostics and drug development is generating considerable excitement in the field of proteomics. However, the discovery of differentially expressed proteins that correlate with a disease… Read More
Global Dealmaking (part 1) – The Pitch By Dr Paul Charlton The age-old adage that your product is only as good as the person selling it still holds true in today’s highly competitive pharmaceutical environment. Yet basic presentation skills are, in many cases, somewhat lacking. This article, the… Read More
Biotechnology-based Orphan Drugs – Achievements and challenges By Dr Erik Tambuyzer For many patients suffering from rare diseases, there are simply no medicines available to treat their condition. With an estimated 20-30 million such patients in Europe alone, rare diseases collectively represent a significant unmet medical need. Read More
The Industrial Evolution of Screening Infrastructure By Chris Molloy Industrialisation of screening depends upon the use of a stable,mature infrastructure. According to a recent Boston Consulting Group report, a pharmaceutical company needs to spend 900 million ($810 million) on R&D to bring a product to market. Read More
