Advances in Antibody Therapy - A promising new approach to how we treat cancer By Dr Patrick A Baeuerle Antibodies available today for cancer treatment, while effective, are typically used in combination with standard therapies because their activity as monotherapy is limited. Currently, four conventional antibody products dominate the oncology… Read More
Lean Six Sigma - Its application to drug discovery By Clare Hammond and Charles J O'Donnell In an increasingly competitive world, the race between pharmas to get high quality candidate drugs to market is on. Contributing to this success is the discovery phase of lead optimisation. The application of Lean… Read More
Progress in Systems-Based Analysis of Cellular Signalling By Dr Jeffrey A. Radding Drug discovery currently focuses on targeted approaches, relying on validation of the target as a disease driver. However, the underlying biological complexity of disease often frustrates these attempts at therapeutic intervention, resulting in high failure rates due to… Read More
Needs and challenges in High Throughput Screening By William Downey, Dr Helen Nicely and Dr Lynne Sopchak High throughput screening (HTS) groups face similar challenges as the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry as a whole faces. HTS groups are looking for ways to improve effectiveness in lead discovery, increase their productivity… Read More
Microplate Mixing - Bioassay panacea or of unproven distraction? By Dr John Comley Despite general awareness of the significance of microplate mixing, it is still a relatively low priority in most laboratories. Microplate mixing has largely been ignored as a serious problem, although potentially it could undermine the generation of… Read More
Human ES Cell Derived Functional Cells as Tools in Drug Discovery By Dr Petter Bjorquist, Dr Peter Sartipy, Dr Raimund Strehl and Dr Johan Hyllner The drug discovery process is extremely-time consuming and expensive. Consequently, novel approaches for these processes and for reducing late-stage attrition are of great value for… Read More
Perspectives for ADMET Integration in the Discovery Process By Dr Constance Hofer ADMET (ADME/Tox), is a relatively new symbiotic acronym for the investigation of basic compound behaviour in terms of absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion, combined with assessments of toxicity. The emergence of ADMET instead of ADME reflects the growing… Read More
Compound Storage Evolution: Unlocking the right combination By Husam Fayez, Dr John Morin and Dr Jeff Paslay Delivering the correct compound, at the right concentration, to the correct place, at the expected time across different facilities, should be the aim of all liquid sample management teams. This article discusses how… Read More
Novartis Vaccines - Leading through innovation and technology By Dr Joerg Reinhardt Every year, vaccines save millions of lives by preventing major human diseases, protecting individuals and those close to them, and offering widespread public defence against disease. In 2006, Novartis joined the vaccines market when it acquired Chiron, creating… Read More
Next Generation DNA Sequencing Technologies By Dr Bruce E. Taillon and Brendon Hill Human genetics is the foundation of disease as well as the response to pharmaceutical agents. Today, promising drugs are abandoned due to the lack of significant efficacy in broad patient populations. Recently, blockbuster drugs have been removed… Read More
William Downey and Dr Shauna Farr-Jones GPCRs are the most studied drug target class and have a proven record as valuable drug targets, with 40-50% of marketed drugs being modulators of GPCR function. Despite the intense effort focused on these targets by the pharmaceutical industry over many years, numerous challenges… Read More
How Non-invasive Visible Light Imaging Can Change Drug Discovery Dr Peter Lassota and Dr Anjani Shah In the past decade, non-invasive visible light imaging gained acceptance not only as a valuable research tool, but also as a means of evaluating new compounds for efficacy and pharmacodynamic properties in drug discovery. Read More
Challenges and opportunities for the greening of separation science in the pharmaceutical industry Dr Christopher J. Welch Opportunities for reducing solvent consumption and waste generation in separation sciences used to support industrial pharmaceutical discovery and development are presented and discussed in this article. Several approaches are considered for ‘greening’ analytical… Read More
Monochromator vs Filter-based Plate Readers By Dr John Comley This article is based around feedback obtained in HTStec's recent Multi-Mode Microplate Reader Trends 2007 Report. It highlights findings on what influences reader choice, current use of different plate reader detection modalities, main target types/classes investigated using plate readers, sources of… Read More
Industry Strategies on Theranostics: Need for structural alignment Dr Rutger O. van Merkerk and Dr Wouter P.C. Boon Theranostics is said to change the way patients will manage their disease. Such a change assumes that diagnostics and therapeutics become increasingly linked based on genetic information. Companies that adhere to this… Read More
The Power of APTAMERS in the Drug Discovery Process Professor Michael Famulok Methods of combinatorial biochemistry allow the identification of nucleic acid sequences, or aptamers, which can bind their target molecules with high affinity and specificity and are able to efficiently inhibit their biological function. Macugen, the first aptamer-based drug… Read More
