Chemical engineering

Researchers have developed a human cell ‘membrane on a chip’ that allows continuous monitoring of how drugs and infectious agents interact with our cells. It may soon be used to test potential drug candidates for COVID-19. The researchers, from the University of Cambridge, Cornell University and Stanford University, say their device could mimic any cell […]

30 June 2020 Image: Lucas Vasques PharmEnable, has closed a £1.8 million seed financing to support its transition into a drug development company. The Cambridge, UK-based drug discovery company uses advanced medicinal chemistry and AI-enabled approaches to design the next generation of highly complex and specific drug candidate molecules. It aims to develop new treatments […]

22 May, 2020 The International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering (ISPE) has announced the appointment of a new CEO and President. Effective June 1, Thomas B. Hartman has been appointed as ISPE’s CEO and President. With a solid track record in the pharmaceutical industry, rising to the role of Vice President of GMP Operations, Biopharm CMC, […]

Meeting analytical challenges in a brave new world of next generation biotherapeutics By Mani Krishnan and Susan Darling Volume 21 Issue 2 – Spring 2020 The need for innovative advanced analytical tools to accelerate the development of immunotherapies and other complex biologics that may one day cure genetic diseases and cancer has never been greater. […]

By Dr William Olds and Dr Deepa Shankar While the antibody market has evolved into a multibillion-dollar industry enabling the discovery of cures, disease diagnosis and basic science acceleration, this has allowed low quality antibodies to hit the market. With a large crisis in reproducibility, the need for high quality antibodies has never been greater. […]

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 […]

Cryo-EM accelerates drug discovery by delivering previously intractable structural insights By Hans Raaijmakers, et al. Cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), a powerful biophysical technique that can analyse molecular assemblies, is changing the paradigm in structure-based drug design. As targets become more challenging, solving structures of drug target molecules or biologics becomes increasingly difficult. Cryo-EM empowers drug discovery […]

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 […]