Biochemistry

13 July 2020 Image: National Cancer Institute Scientists have revealed details of the discovery of a new cancer drug that could be used to treat a range of cancer types, including some blood cancers and solid tumours. The drug, fadraciclib, was jointly discovered by scientists at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, in collaboration with […]

Aigenpulse has released an intelligence platform designed to speed up the drug discovery and development process. The Aigenpulse platform harnesses the latest artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning tools to deliver advanced analytics to underpin scientific decision making. Aigenpulse has built the data-agnostic platform for importing, integrating, processing, linking, visualising, exploring and analysing biological data across multiple […]

Optibrium and the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics (NCSSM), are celebrating five years of an education support collaboration. As part of this specialist science and technology summer school initiative, Optibrium provides free access to StarDrop, Optibrium’s software for small molecule design, optimisation and data analysis. This encourages high school students to take their […]

2 July 2020 From the race to the COVID-19 cure to the new manufacturing technologies that could be a game changer for stem cell therapies. With COVID-19 still a significant feature in the drug discovery landscape, this issue looks at the race to finding a cure – from the quest to creating a core model […]

Scientists from AI precision medicine company, PrecisionLife, have found 68 genes associated with risk of developing severe COVID-19 by using its proprietary AI-enabled precision medicine platform to analyse the genomes of 929 patients from the UK Biobank who had a severe response to SARS-CoV-2. Prior to an effective and widely available vaccine, PrecisionLife’s insights may […]

16 June, 2020 The global science-led biopharmaceutical company said the detailed results from both the Phase II ACE-CL-001 trial and the pivotal Phase III ASCEND trial showed the long-term efficacy and tolerability of Calquence (acalabrutinib) in chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL), one of the most common types of adult leukaemia. AstraZeneca presented the results of the […]

Innovative glycan imaging methods drive cancer biomarker discovery By Dr Richard Drake, Dr Anand Mehta and Dr Peggy Angel Volume 21 Issue 2 – Spring 2020 Glycosylation accounts for the majority of post-translational modifications (PTMs) of proteins, and changes in glycosylation are known to play a key role in disease state. Novel mass spectrometry (MS) […]

By Andrii Lozoniuk Volume 21 Issue 2 – Spring 2020 Gathering compound solubility data is a key step during drug discovery that helps ensure cost-effective screening, yet it is a long process and is often underestimated in terms of difficulty. Global sharing of such data can help pharmaceutical companies minimise unnecessary expenditures in terms of […]

Target discovery and drug development what comes after CRISPR? By Benedict CS Cross Volume 21 Issue 2 – Spring 2020 For an area of research as important and impactful as drug discovery, it is surprising how often efforts in this field are directed by short-term trends. We have seen an abundance of new tools and […]

Harnessing the modified proteome for increased diagnostic power By Dr David Bramwell, Dr Steven Laval and Dr Jane McLeod Relevant biomarkers are vitally important in personalised medicine, guiding patient matching to specific therapies for earlier, easier and more effective disease identification and treatment. Here we trace the expectations of ’omicsbased healthcare interventions, from the increased […]

Unlocking the potential of Extracellular Vesicles: from single molecules to novel therapeutics By Dr Anna Caballe and Dr Katarzyna Ginda-Makela As part of normal homeostasis, cells release different types of small-sized membrane vesicles to traffic analytes across membranes, communicate with other cells and remove unwanted cell content. These vesicles can range in size from 30nm […]

Reducing the PAINS in High Throughput Screening: Assay design as a tool for maximising efficiency By Dr Philip S. Jones and Dr Stuart P. McElroy While the quality of the compound collection is frequently described as a key determinant of the success of a high throughput screening campaign, in our opinion equally important is the […]

Optimising Phenotypic Screening – Single-cell analysis versus 3D multicell analysis By Dr Richard M. Eglen In light of the high failure rate of compounds when they are subjected to clinical testing, we are seeing a renaissance in phenotypic screening in drug discovery. However, most phenotypic screening is based on the use of cellular assays and […]

The Reality of Virtual Pharmaceutical Companies By Dr Stephen Naylor and Dr Kirkwood A. Pritchard Jr We discuss the oxymoronic proposition of a Virtual Pharmaceutical Company (VPC) and the typical adopted business model, as well as provide examples of such companies currently trying to undertake this adventurous task. The vagaries and complexities of bringing a […]

From Genotype to Phenotype: Leveraging functional genomics in oncology By Dr Menelas Pangalos & Steve Rees et al. A challenge in drug discovery is that, at best, only around one in five drug candidates will lead to the launch of a medicine. In 2011, AstraZeneca initiated a strategic ‘5R Framework’ focusing on identifying drug projects […]

Integrated Platform Drug Discovery and Development Companies – Part 2: Comparative analysis By Dr Stephen Naylor and Dr Kirkwood A. Pritchard Jr Spring 2019 Large pharmaceutical companies have struggled to efficiently implement tools, technologies and platforms into their drug discovery and development (DDD) programmes. More recently there have been attempts by small-to-medium sized pharmaceutical companies […]