Clinical specialities

The PneumoLight campaign, in collaboration with Pfizer – and coinciding with World Pneumonia Day – will see 232 buildings and monuments from 48 different countries will be illuminated in blue. The project involves Dr. Catia Cilloniz, a researcher at the Hospital Clínic of Barcelona, the University of Barcelona (UB), the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGLOBAL), […]

ViiV Healthcare, the global specialist HIV company has announced that an independent data safety monitoring board (DSMB) recommended the early unblinding of the HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN) 084 study evaluating the safety and efficacy of investigational, long-acting, injectable cabotegravir for HIV prevention in women. Following a pre-specified interim analysis, the DSMB indicated that cabotegravir […]

A CU Anschutz research team, experts in athletes’ baseline metabolic profiles and how these physiologies change during competition, are helping guide some of the world’s elite athletes to their best performances, including the recent Tour de France winner. Their understanding of the metabolic underpinnings of top athletes has implications for improved treatments of disease, including […]

A double-blind clinical trial, will investigate if a drug used to treat nausea in chemotherapy patients, could alleviate hallucinations in people with Parkinson’s. Parkinson’s UK, the largest charitable funder of Parkinson’s research in Europe, is partnering with UCL, and investing £1 million in a pioneering Phase II clinical trial to explore if the drug ondansetron […]

By Ibis Sanchez-Serrano and Rathnam Chaguturu Mitigation of COVID-19 pandemic requires a combination of effective epidemiological policies and the discovery/development of powerful drugs against the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that causes this disease. This article examines the major initiatives being explored at the public policy level to contain the spread of COVID-19 […]

THE COVID-19 RACE how mouse models will help researchers cross the finish line By Dr Megan MacBride The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 virus and the disease it causes, COVID-19, have fuelled significant shifts in preclinical research across the globe. Amid the worldwide health emergency created by high infection rates, rapid transmission spread and relatively high mortality […]

By Dr Karin Bottcher High content screening (HCS) has played a significant role in infectious disease research and drug discovery to date and can be a strong tool in the age of COVID-19 and beyond. With a focus on viral diseases, this article will describe how HCS has been used by laboratories around the world […]

By Dr Ross Macdonald Cell-based therapies are being widely recognised for their potential to treat a variety of medical conditions, but they face major obstacles toward commercialisation. Traditionally, they have been difficult and expensive to make in large quantities. Biopharmaceutical companies must develop manufacturing solutions that will enable them to efficiently and reproducibly create the […]

The COVID-19 antiviral race: we’re all in this together By Uduak Grace Thomas In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, international scientists from academia and industry have pooled their expertise and resources to identify candidate compounds that inhibit the activity of the SARS-CoV-2 main protease, in order to develop a clinically effective antiviral. The aptly named […]

By Richard Gray The recent outbreak of COVID-19 has highlighted the need for fast and efficient development and production of vaccines for a whole gamut of pathogens, old and new. Microfluidics technologies can be used to accelerate the vaccine development process in a number of ways, not least in the directed evolution of the strains […]

The CELL CULTURE innovations increasing drug discovery success By Helen Stewart-Miller and Abby George Volume 21 Issue 3 – Summer 2020 ‘Fail early, fail fast’ has been a mantra in the pharmaceutical industry for several years and directly impacts the overall strategy of many drug discovery and development programmes. Yet, despite the drive to fail […]

Stem Cell Differentiation By Dr Lilian Hook Stem cells are extraordinary cells, capable of both self-renewal and differentiation to mature somatic cells in vivo and in vitro (1,2). They have many features and advantages which could revolutionise drug development and healthcare applications. Stem cells offer a limitless, consistent supply of physiologically relevant cells from validated […]

Phenotypic Drug Discovery With High Content Screening Sponsored by PerkinElmer Early drug discovery used to be conducted mainly in a target-agnostic fashion, focusing on qualitative readouts from a living system – cells, tissue, or organisms – and asking the question, did this entity affect the phenotype? Target Based or Phenotypic Screening? With the rise of […]

Targeting Energy Metabolism for Cancer Therapeutic Discovery using Agilent Seahorse XF Technology Sponsored by Agilent This white paper discusses targeting energy metabolism for cancer therapeutic discovery using Agilent Seahorse XF technology. Abstract Altered energy metabolism is now recognized as a driver in many diseases. In cancer research, significant advances have been made in defining druggable […]

Leading in vivo pharmacology and consultancy services firm RenaSci, part of the Sygnature Group, have bolstered their Kidney Disease and Fibrosis capabilities with the appointment of Dr Wioletta Pijacka. Wioletta is an in vivo translational biologist with over 12 years of experience in renal and cardio-vascular biology bringing thorough knowledge in several different scientific areas […]

Miltenyi Biotec has launched its SARS-CoV-2 PepTivator Peptide Pools, a new addition to its PepTivator Portfolio specifically developed to help researchers currently investigating COVID-19 Based on decades worth of experience in developing products for virus-specific T cell research, SARS-CoV-2 PepTivator Peptide Pools work by stimulating T cells specific to the novel virus, which allows subsequent […]