Oncology

When High Content Screening Meets High Throughput By Dr Vincent Unterreiner and Dr Daniela Gabriel The terms High Content Imaging (HCI) and High Throughput Screening (HTS) were introduced more than a decade ago (1) and are defining the use of automated microscopy and automated image analysis in the context of drug discovery. Considered historically as […]

The Apocalyptic Horsemen of Drug Discovery and Development By Dr Gary J. Keil The pharmaceutical industry should consider an evolutionary disease management approach based on homeostasis, irreversibility, biological alinearity, pseudo-N-of-1 health and disease states and narrative medicine best practices in order to help secure a successful drug development future. The issues discussed in this article […]

By Dr John Anson, Oxford Gene Technology Molecular biomarkers that define a particular state or condition are a powerful tool used to diagnose disease, highlight patients with a pre-disposition towards a given disease and to identify those who would benefit from a given therapy. Until now, most diagnostic tests have focused on single biomarkers. However, […]

SMAC Mimetics: a new class of targeted agents that activate apoptotic cell death and block pro-survival signalling in cancer cells By Dr Mark A. McKinlay SMAC mimetics are a new class of targeted drugs being developed for the treatment of solid tumours and hematologic cancers. SMAC mimetics specifically induce apoptotic cancer cell death and block […]

Targeting Target Cancer Metabolism – What is fuelling the resurgence? By Dr Neil P. Jones Targeting the metabolic pathways of cancer is a hot topic for drug discovery. The central dogma is that cancers have a higher demand for metabolic inputs to aid proliferation and survival and that this could be an Achilles heal which […]

By Dr Lesley J Millatt, Dr Rmy Hanf and Dr Dean W Hum According to the International Diabetes Federation, more than 285 million people (6.4% of the world population) are currently estimated to suffer from diabetes, a figure which is expected to rise to 438 million (7.8%) by 2030. Moreover, the World Health Organisation calculates […]

Early Patient Stratification is Critical to Enable Effective and Personalised Drug Discovery and Development By Dr David A Fryburg, Dr Diane H Song and Dr David de Graaf With the current chances of an efficacious outcome in Phase II for novel mechanisms being in the region of 1 in 5, we argue the need for […]

In Vivo Preclinical Imaging – An Essential Tool in Translational Research By Dr John Comley In vivo imaging of small animals (mainly mice) is increasingly being deployed across the drug development process, particularly in the oncology/cancer therapeutic area. One of the main applications is monitoring the treatment response for early indications of efficacy. The most […]

Enabling the Promise of Stem Cells By Robert Shaw and Dr Jeff Till The remarkable potential of stem cells to generate several hundred differentiated cell types is driving their use for regenerative medicine and for supporting the traditional drug discovery and development process (Figure 1). However, sustained progress in these areas is dependent on advances […]

The Post Genomic Era: What Does It All Mean? By Dr Chris Torrance Information may no longer be a bottleneck to understanding and tackling complex genetic diseases such as cancer. For those who cut their research teeth not so very long ago, before PCR was thought of by Kary Mullis, this is truly an amazing […]