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 […]

Targeting Energy Metabolism for Cancer Therapeutic Discovery using Agilent Seahorse XF Technology Sponsored by Agilent This white paper discusses targeting energy metabolism for cancer therapeutic discovery using Agilent Seahorse XF technology. Abstract Altered energy metabolism is now recognized as a driver in many diseases. In cancer research, significant advances have been made in defining druggable […]

Evonetix collaborates with imec to scale-up chip-based technology production for third generation DNA synthesis platform. EVONETIX LTD (‘Evonetix’), the synthetic biology company developing a desktop platform for scalable, high-fidelity and rapid gene synthesis, today announced it has partnered with imec, a world-leading research and innovation hub active in the fields of nanoelectronics and digital technologies, […]

Grey Wolf Therapeutics completes £2.5 million ($3.3 million) Series A2 financing to accelerate development of therapies targeting ERAP2. Grey Wolf targets ERAP antigen presentation pathways with the aim of ‘illuminating’ non-responsive tumors for attack and destruction by the immune system. Grey Wolf Therapeutics, a drug discovery biotechnology company focused on developing first-in-class therapies for immuno-oncology […]

Sphere Fluidics expands commercial operations to increase supply of Pico-Surf surfactant for droplet microfluidics. Sphere Fluidics, a company commercializing single cell analysis systems underpinned by its patented picodroplet technology, today announced investment in the production and supply of its proprietary biocompatible surfactant, Pico-Surf™, for reliable and highly stable droplet generation and processing. Sphere Fluidics will […]

Image: Pille-Riin Priske Avacta has begun work with the UK government’s CONDOR programme to evaluate and clinically validate the high throughput COVID-19 bead-assisted mass spectrometry (BAMS) laboratory assay developed with Adeptrix. The COVID-19 National Diagnostic Research and Evaluation Platform (CONDOR), recently funded by the National Institute for Health Research, UK Research and Innovation, Asthma UK […]

According to the Humane Society International/UK (HSI/UK), Home Office statistics reveal that the number of animals in British laboratories has stayed broadly the same almost a decade after the government pledged to reduce animal use. It says that UK laboratories completed a total of 3.4 million procedures in 2019, down by 8% on 2010 when […]