Molecular medicine

Cell Therapy – Preserving Cell Integrity and Viability To Drive Discovery Mary Kay Bates Cell therapy is poised to play a pivotal role in the development of precision and personalised medicines that will transform healthcare for millions of patients worldwide. Involving the direct use of whole cells or cellular material in patients, cell therapy is […]

The Mass Spectrometry Innovations Simplifying Drug Discovery Workflows Helen Stewart-Miller and Dr Richard Massey Mass spectrometry (MS) has long been a valuable tool for drug discovery, and steady advances in its capabilities and performance have generated powerful insights for the pharmaceutical industry. The latest mass spectrometry innovations are now helping biotherapeutics developers overcome challenges around […]

Microfluidics – Driving Innovation and Streamlining Single Cell Analysis By Dr Frank F. Craig Microfluidics platforms that harness picodroplet technology (picolitre volume aqueous droplets in stabilised oil emulsions) are unlocking the potential of single cell analysis to enable exciting new discoveries and advances with the potential to transform scientific research, drug development and precision medicine. […]

Analytical Biophysical Tools To Accelerate Discovery of Therapeutic Antibodies By Dr Yasmina Noubia Abdiche The innate ability of antibodies to bind their targets with high affinity and exquisite specificity is leveraged in the discovery of therapeutic antibodies to treat a broad range of diseases including cancer, autoimmune disease and heart disease. In addition, antibodies are […]

Disruptive Approaches To Accelerate Drug Discovery and Development (Part 2) By Dr Anton Fliri, et al. Part 2: Emergent intelligence, a new paradigm for drug discovery. (You can read part 1 of disruptive approaches to accelerate drug discovery and development linked here.) The staggering clinical trial failure rate of experimental drugs indicates that despite huge […]

Astrazeneca R&D – Improving Drug Development Productivity With Better Predictivity By Dr Menelas Pangalos & Steve Rees et al. Changing demands in global healthcare over the past 15 years have led to greater complexity and spiralling costs in drug development. The average price tag of taking a new drug from discovery to completion of Phase […]

Precision Medicine Drugs – Pleonasm or Reality? Dr Urban Kiernan and Dr Stephen Naylor The complexity and uniqueness of human metabolism and physiology in the past decade has been highlighted and dissected. Arguments have been made to suggest that our lack of understanding about human individuality has led to the limited efficacy and safety of […]

How High-Throughput CRISPR is set to Deliver Knockout Performance in Drug Discovery By Dr Paul Avery and Dr Richard Massey CRISPR-Cas9 has rapidly transformed our ability to perform targeted gene editing. While the technique has received much interest for its potential in the field of gene therapy, advances in its high-throughput use mean it can […]

Bringing Immuno-Oncology Together: How An Immunologist & Oncologist Collaborate By Dr Julia Schuler and Dr Louise Brackenbury For many years, immunology and oncology operated as separate disciplines within drug discovery. However, recent advances in immuno-oncology (IO) have demonstrated what can be achieved when the two disciplines join forces in developing novel treatments for patients. From […]

Natural Killer Cells – How NK Cell Therapy Will Transform Immunotherapy By Dr Azusa Tanaka and Dr Michael Seiler Regulatory approval of CAR-T cell therapies in 2017 placed the spotlight on immunotherapy approaches that use live cells to attack tumours – a major shift in oncology treatment and the battle against cancer. Yet even this […]

The Cancer Conundrum – Increasing Clinical Success In Early Stage Drug Discovery By Lubna Hussain This article focuses on increasing clinical success in early stage drug discovery, by implementing improved methodologies in the early phase & using primary cells and 3D culture models to enhance cancer drug discovery. The high stakes of drug discovery and […]

Biologics Drug Discovery – Driving Strategic Improvements With Scientific Informatics By Dr Andrew LeBeau Adoption of a scientific informatics system is essential to the success of every drug discovery organisation. This article discusses how we can drive strategic improvements in biologics drug discovery using scientific informatics. Good decisions can accelerate innovation and success, whereas poor […]

Disruptive Approaches To Accelerate Drug Discovery and Development (Part 1) By Ibis Sanchez- Serrano, Dr Tom Pfeifer and Dr Rathnam Chaguturu This article is part 1 of 2, and covers tools, technologies and the core model of disruptive approaches to accelerate drug discovery and development. Tesla intends to implement and practise an ‘open source’ philosophy […]

The Use of Next-Generation Sequencing in Drug Development By Keith Nangle & Mike Furness This article summarises some of the technical and regulatory challenges posed by next-generation sequencing technologies and the efforts being made to address them. Next-generation sequencing (NGS) has moved from the realm of research into those of clinical development, drug approval and […]

Therapeutic Antibodies – New tools to enhance the antibody drug pipeline By Dr Robert Ford & Dr Toni Hoffmann Therapeutic antibodies are the fastest growing class of drugs, with continuous increases in the number of innovator and biosimilar drugs in development. Drug development and clinical trials necessitate the ability to specifically, sensitively and reproducibly measure […]

Breaking Down Silos in Drug Development – Why interdisciplinary integration is fundamental for pharma’s future By Dr Paul Overton In this article, we consider the symptoms and consequences of a silo culture in drug development, and look at how interdisciplinary integration should be at the heart of every pharma business model. A silo mentality is […]