The emergence of pharmacogenomics within the pharmaceutical industry By Aidan Power, Suzin Webb, Dr Albert Seymour and Dr Patrice Milos The sequencing of the human genome represents one of the most significant scientific advances of the 20th century that will shape the foundation of medical research well… Read More
The Once and Future Microarray Market By Dr Ken Rubenstein Although the future for micorarray technology looks bright, the DNA microarray consumer is faced with a number of important choices regarding sources and technologies. Developers, users, and afficionados of DNA microarray technology, who… Read More
The importance of using human-based models in gene and drug discovery By Dr Michael G. Palfreyman, Dr Vinod Charles and Jeffrey Blander Completion of the human genome sequence has opened an unprecedented opportunity to discover the genetic contribution to many of the complex diseases that afflict humans and… Read More
By Dr Roger A. Edwards, Dr Kai Zhang and Louise Firth Different companies have employed various techniques and strategies for addressing productivity issues in the chemistry functions within pharmaceutical discovery and preclinical development. We benchmarked lead optimisation, clinical candidate selection, and chemistry… Read More
Drug development for skin diseases based on functional genomics By Dr Jorn-Peter Halle With the high number of sufferers from skin disease around the world, it is astonishing that there are relatively few treatments available and that many of these only serve to relieve symptoms. Can drug development… Read More
Fine-tuning the technology strategies for lead finding By Sandra Fox, Dr Shauna Farr-Jones, Dr Lynne Sopchak and Dr Helen Wang HTS has become the workhorse of pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies’ drug discovery efforts, with expanding responsibilities and increasing pressures to screen more targets with better compound libraries… Read More
Monoclonal Antibodies – Magic bullets or a shot in the dark By Dr Fiona Adair It has been 16 years since the first monoclonal antibody was approved for therapy in acute transplant rejection. Now, with a further nine therapeutic monoclonal antibodies approved for use and some 16 in… Read More
Nanolitre Dispensing – On the point of delivery By Dr John Comley Precise low-volume liquid handling methodologies are still sought after by those interested in enabling miniaturised HTS. This article reviews the need for nanolitre dispensing and provides a current perspective on those emerging technologies that have the… Read More
SNP Genotyping in Drug Development By Dr Nicholas C. Dracopoli and Dr Kim E. Zerba SNP-based candidate gene analyses are likely to have a significant impact on predicting drug efficacy and will, undoubtedly, impact on the pharmaceutical industry’s development strategies as a whole over the next few years. Read More
Biotechnology, Bioterrorism & Biosecurity By Dr George Poste Advances in genetics and biotechnology offer great promise in the fight against infectious diseases. But the same technologies will also increase the threat from bioterrorism. Governments must accord ‘biosecurity’ a higher priority in defence and foreign… Read More
High throughput genomics and drug discovery – parallel universes or a continuum? By Dr Mark Beggs and Audrey Long HTS has been in place for approximately 10-12 years and has achieved a threeorder of magnitude scale up. Genomics has been in a ‘high throughput’ mode for approximately four… Read More
Lead Generation and Lead Optimisation: the value of linking HT co-structure analysis and HT chemistry By Dr David U Prichard The coupling of High Throughput co-structure analysis with focused library generation is not only proving a powerful general tool in lead optimisation but also increasing the probability of… Read More
The Future of Cardiovascular Gene Therapy By Christopher J. Reinhard Advances in regenerative medicine go hand in hand with new perspectives and insights into potential treatments for heart disease. After a decade of pre-clinical and early Phase 1 and 2 clinical studies, gene therapy… Read More
Chemical microarrays – The drug discovery superhighway By Elaine Seeskin While producing targets was once the bottleneck in the drug discovery process, in the post-genomic era this has been superseded by the requirement for high-quality lead structures. As a result of the pool… Read More
Obesity – The 21st century disease By Diane L. McBay and Dr Colin T. Dourish Obesity will be the leading cause of death and disability in the 21st century. This epidemic is largely attributable to increasingly sedentary lifestyles and the abundance of tasty, high-fat foods. Read More
Channelling Drug Discovery – Current trends in ion channel drug discovery research By Dr David Owen and Andrew Silverthorne Ion channels are proteins that span cell membranes thus forming conduits or ‘channels’ through which charged ions such as sodium and potassium can pass across a normally impermeant… Read More
