Animal models

3D Cell Culture – Engineering Composable, Disease-Tunable 3D Human Microtissues for Drug Discovery By Dr Patrick Guye, Dr Eva Thoma and Dr Olivier Frey In this article, we will share some of what we have learned over the past 10 years as pioneers in the 3D cell culture space and provide guidance for those who […]

Genetically-Engineered Models: The Value of Precious GEMs By Dr Megan M. MacBride Genetically-engineered animal models (GEMs) are critical tools for drug discovery and development, but intellectual property (IP) concerns can complicate access. As pharma and biotech increasingly outsource R&D activities to universities, careful scrutiny is required to ensure adherence to IP restrictions on research tools […]

The Future Of Drug Discovery – Cutting-edge technologies meet traditional paradigms in assay development By Dr Roger Bosse With more than 1,500 drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on the market, the easiest disease targets are already covered (1). Today’s scientists are challenged to find new compounds, acting alone or in combination, […]

Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPSCs) – Unlocking their full potential for Drug Discovery By Abby Edwards and Dr Richard Massey Human stem cells were once viewed primarily as regenerative materials for tissue repair through cell therapies. However, advances in technologies and protocols mean that induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) are now playing an increasingly important […]

Disruptive Approaches To Accelerate Drug Discovery and Development (Part 2) By Dr Anton Fliri, et al. Part 2: Emergent intelligence, a new paradigm for drug discovery. (You can read part 1 of disruptive approaches to accelerate drug discovery and development linked here.) The staggering clinical trial failure rate of experimental drugs indicates that despite huge […]

Astrazeneca R&D – Improving Drug Development Productivity With Better Predictivity By Dr Menelas Pangalos & Steve Rees et al. Changing demands in global healthcare over the past 15 years have led to greater complexity and spiralling costs in drug development. The average price tag of taking a new drug from discovery to completion of Phase […]

Bringing Immuno-Oncology Together: How An Immunologist & Oncologist Collaborate By Dr Julia Schuler and Dr Louise Brackenbury For many years, immunology and oncology operated as separate disciplines within drug discovery. However, recent advances in immuno-oncology (IO) have demonstrated what can be achieved when the two disciplines join forces in developing novel treatments for patients. From […]

Natural Killer Cells – How NK Cell Therapy Will Transform Immunotherapy By Dr Azusa Tanaka and Dr Michael Seiler Regulatory approval of CAR-T cell therapies in 2017 placed the spotlight on immunotherapy approaches that use live cells to attack tumours – a major shift in oncology treatment and the battle against cancer. Yet even this […]

The Cancer Conundrum – Increasing Clinical Success In Early Stage Drug Discovery By Lubna Hussain This article focuses on increasing clinical success in early stage drug discovery, by implementing improved methodologies in the early phase & using primary cells and 3D culture models to enhance cancer drug discovery. The high stakes of drug discovery and […]

Biologics Drug Discovery – Driving Strategic Improvements With Scientific Informatics By Dr Andrew LeBeau Adoption of a scientific informatics system is essential to the success of every drug discovery organisation. This article discusses how we can drive strategic improvements in biologics drug discovery using scientific informatics. Good decisions can accelerate innovation and success, whereas poor […]

Disruptive Approaches To Accelerate Drug Discovery and Development (Part 1) By Ibis Sanchez- Serrano, Dr Tom Pfeifer and Dr Rathnam Chaguturu This article is part 1 of 2, and covers tools, technologies and the core model of disruptive approaches to accelerate drug discovery and development. Tesla intends to implement and practise an ‘open source’ philosophy […]

High-Throughput Spheroid Culture – Applications of 3D Cell Culture By Hilary Sherman, Dr Richard M. Eglen & Audrey Bergeron In this article, we describe applications of high-throughput screening using 3D cell culture to assess cell viability. In addition, we highlight the importance of including multiple cell types in 3D assays to more accurately assess potency […]

Therapeutic Antibodies – New tools to enhance the antibody drug pipeline By Dr Robert Ford & Dr Toni Hoffmann Therapeutic antibodies are the fastest growing class of drugs, with continuous increases in the number of innovator and biosimilar drugs in development. Drug development and clinical trials necessitate the ability to specifically, sensitively and reproducibly measure […]

Drug Discovery in the Age of Big Data – The Impact of RNAi & CRISPR/Cas9 Technologies By Dr Prem Premsrirut This article discusses how RNA interference and CRISPR/Cas9 technologies are helping to build better mouse models and push drug discovery into a new era. Most, if not all, consumers are feeling the weight of rising […]

Phenotypic Screening – Advancing the science from discovery to regulatory science By Dr Ellen L. Berg Phenotypic screening is transforming drug discovery as advances are made in development of human-based physiologically-relevant in vitro systems. Integration of phenotypic drug discovery approaches with target-based screening can improve success rates as assays can be leveraged for the discovery […]

Novel Drug Targets From Phenotypic Screening By Dr Jim Freeth, Dr Elizabeth Kingsley & Jo Soden Identifying functional molecules with the potential to be developed into new therapeutics is often the sole aim of phenotypic drug discovery. However, the approach also provides valuable opportunities to uncover previously unknown, disease-specific drug receptors that can then be […]