Genetics / genomics

Epigenetic Modulators of Histone Methylation By Dr Michael Thomenius and William P. Janzen Drug Discovery Epigenetics is a term that refers to the durable and context-specific regulation of transcription processes. The majority of epigenetics involves a complex system of enzymes, binding proteins and accessory proteins that control access to the genome by transcription factors and […]

Metabolomics – A Playbook for Functional Genomics By Dr David Ferrick If we have learned anything from scientific research in the last 20 years, it is that finding cures to complex diseases is difficult. Despite the promise of the genomic revolution, disease progression and patient outcomes are still not easily predicted by genetic factors alone. […]

With Synthetic Biology, Drug Discovery Is Going Virtual by Christopher Voigt Christopher Voigt is a professor of biological engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where his lab focuses on synthetic biology. Two major areas of interest for him are developing a genetic programming language for cells and applying synthetic biology to biotechnology challenges. Ultimately, […]

Full Length Isoform Sequencing (Iso-Seq) Yields a More Comprehensive View of Gene Activity By Luke Hickey RNA-seq has revolutionised how scientists can interrogate gene expression. But after years of performing RNA-seq studies with short-read sequencers, many have realised that there is more to be discovered. Comprehensive transcriptome analysis – an essential tool for characterising disease, […]

Synthetic Lethality and Anti Cancer Drug Discovery By Jonathan D Moore Classically-activated oncogene targets have been a mainstay of cancer drug discovery for the past 15 years, but the druggable targets in this category have been largely mined out. Future efforts to drug the cancer genome must take synthetic lethal approaches exploiting vulnerabilities opened up […]

Drug Discovery in a Multi-Omics World By Mike Furness Collectively rare diseases affect millions of people worldwide, but the number of people with any one condition is very small. Finding a cure is difficult as the market is not large enough to justify a big investment in drug development. This is all about to change […]

Therapeutic Drug Repurposing, Repositioning and Rescue Part IV: Financial model and analysis By David M. Kauppi and Dr Stephen Naylor There is a growing consensus that Drug Repurposing, Repositioning and Rescue (DRPx) impacts all stakeholders involved in the therapeutic drug sector. In part, this is due to the fact that the pharmaceutical industry accrues ~25% […]

Individualised Systems Medicine: Next-Generation Precision Cancer Medicine and Drug Positioning By Tea Pemovska, Paaivi Östling, Caroline Heckman, Olli Kallioniemi and Krister Wennerberg A growing number of oncology drugs are currently clinically available and more than a thousand compounds are being developed for oncology indications. Thus, the challenge is to systematically develop all these drugs to […]

Epigenetic Targets: On the verge of becoming a major new category for successful drug research By Dr John Comley Most vendors of epigenetic modification proteins and reagents have enhanced and broadened their offerings in recent years. Of particular note is the increasing range of proteins and binding assays that now support research on the Bromodomains […]

Precise genome editing: the key to a CRISPR drug discovery pipeline? By Dr. J. D. Wrigley, Dr M Maresca, Dr K Birmingham, Dr M Bohlooly-Y and Dr L M. Mayr From the pioneering days of Watson and Crick in 1953, to completion of the human genome project in 2003, advances in our understanding of DNA […]