Pathology

By Dr Jean- Pierre Wery Optimal treatment for any disease is one that can cure or prevent spreading with minimal impact on the patient’s quality of life. In the case of cancer, therapeutic agents were initially designed to kill rapidly dividing cells. These traditional treatments, namely chemotherapy and radiotherapy, remain the backbone of current therapy. […]

Phenotypic Drug Discovery: Striving towards the highest level of biological relevance By Dr John Comley Phenotypic drug discovery (PDD) implies screening where the molecular mechanism of action is not assumed and does not require knowledge of the molecular target. As such phenotypic drug discovery is comparable to empirical screening, which was historically used in drug […]

The Increasing Impact of Precision Research Models on Drug Discovery and Development Dr Amar Thyagarajan Animal models are the standard by which we gain insight into the complex biological processes that underlie normal human physiology and disease states. Rodent models such as rats and mice have been used to understand various aspects of human physiology, […]

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 […]

Experimental therapeutics for celiac disease and refractory celiac disease. By Dr Francisco Leon and Beth Llewellyn Celiac disease is a permanent immunological intolerance to gluten proteins in genetically predisposed individuals. In celiac patients, gluten causes a systemic autoimmune disease which starts in the small intestine but spreads to other organs in approximately one half of […]

Redesigning Therapeutic Drug Monitoring for the 21st Century By Lewis Couchman Therapeutic drug monitoring services are a vital part of the pathology laboratory’s remit, providing essential clinical information to guide the management and treatment of a wide range of patients, from those with psychiatric disorders to post-transplantation care. King’s College Hospital, London, is developing automated […]

Reconfiguring Drug Discovery Through Innovative Partnerships By Dr Robert Grundy, Iain James, Chas Bountra and Timothy Harrison Attrition rates in drug discovery and development remain stubbornly high, despite large investments by the pharmaceutical industry. The cost of developing a new drug has been estimated at between $1.3 billion and upwards of $4 billion, if one […]

Automating The Drive Towards Personalised Medicine By Dr Alexandre Akoulitchev, Dr Howard Womersley and Dr Phil Jordan Interest in personalised medicine continues to grow, and epigenetic biomarkers are very informative in this respect, giving a clear indication of whether (and how) a patient’s gene expression profile has changed, as well as the rate of disease […]

Developing The First Treatment For Acute Kidney Injury By Tim Knotnerus Acute Kidney Injury (AKI) is a devastating disease characterised by a rapid loss of kidney function resulting in inability to maintain fluid, electrolyte and acidbase balance. AKI is particularly common in patients admitted to the Intensive Care Unit where incidence rates between 22% to […]

More Than Genes and Cells: Drug Discovery in the Extracellular Matrix (ECM) By Dr William Bains Drug discovery in the last few decades has focused on the cellular and genetic mechanisms of disease. This has been very successful in cancer, which is a disease of somatic genetics, and moderately successful elsewhere. But the declining productivity […]