Pathology

Role of image informatics in accelerating drug discovery and development By Robert Dunkle There is a new category of informatics that is proving itself essential to the acceleration of drug discovery and development. Image informatics is the systematic use of image data as a means to help interpret experiments and understand biology. Up to 70% […]

Protease Inhibitor Therapeutics for Respiratory Disease By Dr Philip J. Barr Disruption of the natural equilibria between proteases and their cognate inhibitors is a common feature of inflammatory disease. When this occurs in the lung, the effects can lead to irreversible impairment of pulmonary function. Although protease inhibition has been standard therapy for hereditary emphysema […]

DNA repair inhibition to treat cancer and other serious illnesses By Professor Stephen P. Jackson and Cheryl L. Bishop The stability of an organism’s genome is essential for healthy functioning and survival. The information content and integrity of the genome are so important that a range of maintenance and repair systems have evolved. These systems, […]

By Dr Steven Bodovitz and Dr Scott D. Patterson The potential for parallel protein-based analyses to define a new era in diagnostics and drug development is generating considerable excitement in the field of proteomics. However, the discovery of differentially expressed proteins that correlate with a disease state or a drug response is only one aspect […]

Molecular pathology and the art of drug design By Dr Keith McCullagh The current explosion of interest in sophisticated genomic technologies, computerised robotics and high throughput screening of diverse molecular libraries appears to have been associated with a reduction in research productivity in recent years, as judged by the rate of new drug approvals. Analysis […]

The role of ZEBRAFISH in drug discovery By Dr Paul Goldsmith and Roberto Solari The NIH has ranked the Zebrafish as the third most important experimental organism after man, the Sanger Centre is sequencing the genome and many medical researchers are shifting over to it. But will the zebrafish have a role in drug discovery? […]

The New Blockbuster Drugs – Healthcare packages for particular disease pathologies By Dr Nick Davies and Dr Steve Arlington With the cost of bringing a new drug to market now exceeding $800 million there is no doubt that the pharmaceutical industry has to fundamentally address the way in which it operates. This article offers a […]

Predictive chemoinformatics applications to the pharmaceutical industry By Dr Leslie J. Browne and Laurie L.Taylor While significant advances in chemoinformatics present tremendous opportunities to improve human health, the future of chemoinformatics in the pharmaceutical industry is not without significant challenges. Chemoinformatics is the result of collective advances in chemistry, biology, computer sciences and statistics and […]

CNS Drug Discovery – Realising the dream By Dr Julie C. Barnes and Dr Ann G. Hayes Over the years, the discovery of drugs for treating neurological and psychiatric diseases has proven to be one of the highest risk areas in the pharmaceutical industry. Despite the huge resources that have been invested in CNS discovery, […]

The importance of using human-based models in gene and drug discovery By Dr Michael G. Palfreyman, Dr Vinod Charles and Jeffrey Blander Completion of the human genome sequence has opened an unprecedented opportunity to discover the genetic contribution to many of the complex diseases that afflict humans and to use this information for new approaches […]

Drug development for skin diseases based on functional genomics By Dr Jorn-Peter Halle With the high number of sufferers from skin disease around the world, it is astonishing that there are relatively few treatments available and that many of these only serve to relieve symptoms. Can drug development based on a functional genomics approach be […]

Biotechnology, Bioterrorism & Biosecurity By Dr George Poste Advances in genetics and biotechnology offer great promise in the fight against infectious diseases. But the same technologies will also increase the threat from bioterrorism. Governments must accord ‘biosecurity’ a higher priority in defence and foreign policies to reduce the risk of major societal disruptions and international […]

By Dr Patrick J. Vojta, Vincent P. Kazmer and Dr Larry D. Kier Adverse drug responses are an important post-marketing public health issue, occurring many times in subsets of treatment populations. Promising new approaches to predicting physiological responses to drugs are focused on genomic responses or toxicogenomics (1). This article provides a current perspective on […]

Metabolism Provides Alternative Door to Stroke Therapy By Dr Keith F. Martin and Tony Dolan Even in the age of genomics and gene hunters, a holistic view of cell metabolism can result in revolutionary new drugs. You know that feeling you get the day after an exaggerated attempt at physical exercise, when you suddenly feel […]

The Impact of Genomics on Regulation By Dr Steve Arlington, Dr Tim Peakman, Adriana Salvatore and Jonathan Peachey Advances in science and technology are enabling us to understand physiology and pathology at a totally new level; to define, subtype and track diseases much more accurately; and to treat patients far more effectively, using novel delivery […]

Stem Cells – The long march forward to the clinic By Dr Alan Colman The area of cellular therapeutics has never been readily embraced by ‘Big Pharma’, with ethical and regulatory issues even more complex and troublesome than proteins. Can stem cell therapy provide the key to unlocking a rich vein of pharmaceutical activity? In […]