System biology

By Ibis Sanchez-Serrano and Rathnam Chaguturu Mitigation of COVID-19 pandemic requires a combination of effective epidemiological policies and the discovery/development of powerful drugs against the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that causes this disease. This article examines the major initiatives being explored at the public policy level to contain the spread of COVID-19 […]

By Dr Jamie Freeman Base editing is a potentially transformative technology for engineering DNA in cells that has the potential to generate knockouts or correct certain errors or mutations in the DNA for applications such as cell or gene therapies. Compared with currently-available gene editing methodologies such as CRISPR/Cas9, which creates ‘cuts’ in the gene […]

By Dr Karin Bottcher High content screening (HCS) has played a significant role in infectious disease research and drug discovery to date and can be a strong tool in the age of COVID-19 and beyond. With a focus on viral diseases, this article will describe how HCS has been used by laboratories around the world […]

By Dr Ross Macdonald Cell-based therapies are being widely recognised for their potential to treat a variety of medical conditions, but they face major obstacles toward commercialisation. Traditionally, they have been difficult and expensive to make in large quantities. Biopharmaceutical companies must develop manufacturing solutions that will enable them to efficiently and reproducibly create the […]

The COVID-19 antiviral race: we’re all in this together By Uduak Grace Thomas In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, international scientists from academia and industry have pooled their expertise and resources to identify candidate compounds that inhibit the activity of the SARS-CoV-2 main protease, in order to develop a clinically effective antiviral. The aptly named […]

The CELL CULTURE innovations increasing drug discovery success By Helen Stewart-Miller and Abby George Volume 21 Issue 3 – Summer 2020 ‘Fail early, fail fast’ has been a mantra in the pharmaceutical industry for several years and directly impacts the overall strategy of many drug discovery and development programmes. Yet, despite the drive to fail […]

Collaborative Research Leads To New Understanding Of Biomarkers By Dr Max Ryadnov and Professor Jason Crain A new collaborative research paper sheds light on the way antibodies distinguish between different but closely related ‘biomarkers’ – in this case protein fragments which reveal information about the condition of the human body. This new understanding could enable […]

Guidelines & Recommendations For Analyzing and Interpreting GPCR Second Messenger Data Sponsored by CisBio The question of choosing which methods to use for analyte quantification (signal vs concentration determination, parameters, and format) continues to generate heated debates and divergent understanding. Today, there is still a communication gap between researchers depending on their field of expertise […]

Stem Cell Differentiation By Dr Lilian Hook Stem cells are extraordinary cells, capable of both self-renewal and differentiation to mature somatic cells in vivo and in vitro (1,2). They have many features and advantages which could revolutionise drug development and healthcare applications. Stem cells offer a limitless, consistent supply of physiologically relevant cells from validated […]

Phenotypic Drug Discovery With High Content Screening Sponsored by PerkinElmer Early drug discovery used to be conducted mainly in a target-agnostic fashion, focusing on qualitative readouts from a living system – cells, tissue, or organisms – and asking the question, did this entity affect the phenotype? Target Based or Phenotypic Screening? With the rise of […]