The Deming Approach to Quality In Pharmaceutical Research By John H. Van Drie We explore the relevance to pharmaceutical research of the ideas of W. Edwards Deming, the statistician whose ideas on quality transformed the manufacturing sector of post-war Japan. To enhance productivity in pharmaceutical research, we have tended to… Read More
Technology, Bane or Bonanza for the Pharmaceutical industry? By Dr Stephen Naylor, Adam W. Culbertson and Dr Stephen J. Valentine Productivity in the pharmaceutical industry has long held well-documented concerns. While the adoption of new technologies into the drug discovery and development process has often been seen as a… Read More
Designing animal models for evaluation of therapeutic and vaccine candidates for emerging and biodefence-related pathogens By Dr Colleen Jonsson and Dr Peter Silvera While a number of promising drug therapies and vaccines have been identified for safeguarding bioterrorism organisms and diseases, further development requires well characterised animal models for testing… Read More
Molecular Diagnostics in Drug Development - The changing face of pharmaceutical discovery By Dr Berwyn Clarke Clinical drug development is moving into an era where high technology new diagnostics are key to the development of the majority of new drugs. Markers are now available that can be used as surrogate… Read More
Automated Biobanking - The next big step for biorespositories By Dr John Comley As a significant proportion of the many newly established national, regional and disease-specific biobanks or biorespositories contemplate how they will enable enhanced sample integrity, tracking and audit trail, there has never been a more opportune time to… Read More
Tools for Target Identification, Validation and Biomarker Discovery By Dr Paul Denny-Gouldson As automation in the drug discovery arena increases then so does the amount and complexity of the data. We discuss an emerging solution that now integrates various technologies to provide a scientific data intelligence tool giving scientists increasing… Read More
Enabling Collaborative Science via the Integration of Analytical Data into Organisational Systems By Mark Bayliss The storage of data drawn from the analytical process has for years been the stumbling block in the overall ‘knowledge management’ of the discovery process. This article argues that current scientific data management packages offer… Read More
Personalised Medicine - Technological innovation and patient empowerment or exuberant hyperbole? By Adam W. Culbertson, Dr Stephen J. Valentine and Dr Stephen Naylor The current paradigm of modern healthcare focuses on patient symptoms, subsequent diagnosis and corresponding treatment of the specific disease(s). Escalating healthcare costs and a trial and error… Read More
Establishment of an open access compound management facility By David Camp This article covers the establishment of an open access compound management facility in Australia to stimulate applied, basic and translational biomedical research. The paradigm for probing biological processes and drug discovery via small molecules has changed significantly over the… Read More
By Dr Jean-Luc Vanderheyden As the experience and advances in Positron Emission Tomography (PET) imaging grows, so does the belief that this technology can have a key role to play in ushering in an era of personalised medicine while also offering an enormous contribution in reducing the attrition rates in… Read More
Serial vs Direct Dilution - Time to apply new thinking to IC50 determination and dose-response analysis? By Dr John Comley The serial dilution method is standard practice in the preparation of doseresponse series for IC50 determination. However, it is well recognised that inadequacies in the liquid handling or mixing technique… Read More
Lean Thinking for Drug Discovery – Better Productivity for Pharma By Dr Edward W. Petrillo Success in drug discovery controls the success of the pharmaceutical enterprise. The molecular structure of every drug candidate, and the body of knowledge that will guide its use in the treatment of disease, are established… Read More
India - Global pharmaceutical R&D powerhouse or contract research workshop? By Dr Matthew Howard In response to the ever-increasing costs of drug discovery and development, pharmaceutical industry leaders must constantly seek to increase productivity while simultaneously reducing costs and maintaining quality. Globalisation of drug discovery may provide such an opportunity,… Read More
Sharing Risks and Rewards - Basis for a turnkey pharma-biotech alliance in osteoarthritis Dr Andre Hoekema In June 2006, Galapagos and GlaxoSmithKline’s Center of Excellence for External Drug Discovery (CEEDD) formed a multi-year worldwide alliance to discover and develop novel drugs for osteoarthritis. The focus of the alliance will be… Read More
Kinase Screening and Profiling Products - Spoilt for choice By Dr John Comley The end user is spoilt for choice with the range of alternative offerings, methodologies and approaches currently available for kinase screening and profiling. Whereas wider coverage of the kinome was the principal focus of kinase profiling a… Read More
Genetics & Personalised Medicine - Whole genome association and genetic linkage studies By Dr John W. Hooper Genetic linkage studies have long been the standard for researching the genetics associated with heritable diseases. Recently, however, scientists have begun to realise the benefits of whole genome association studies, which enable them… Read More
