System biology

Application of bioinformatics in support of precision medicine By Mike Furness and John Wise Bioinformatics has played a major role in gene sequencing diagnostics and has been an essential tool to investigate the genetic causes of disease. With the support of new technologies and tools, bioinformatics can play an important part in the support and […]

Automated Cell-based Assays: Novel tools overcome the barriers to drug discovery success By Helen Stewart-Miller and Kate Tointon In this article, we look at how commercial products and services are facilitating the automation of cell-based assays to advance drug discovery and accelerate the delivery of new medicines to patients. Cell-based assays are vital tools in […]

Cell Therapy – Falling short of its potential? By Pierre-Louis Joffrin Despite major investment in the field, few cell therapies have gained regulatory approval with limited commercial success. The success of therapeutic products is defined by three factors: safety, efficacy and scalability. Achieving these for cell therapy presents new challenges; overcoming transplant rejection (and GvHD […]

The Reality of Virtual Pharmaceutical Companies By Dr Stephen Naylor and Dr Kirkwood A. Pritchard Jr We discuss the oxymoronic proposition of a Virtual Pharmaceutical Company (VPC) and the typical adopted business model, as well as provide examples of such companies currently trying to undertake this adventurous task. The vagaries and complexities of bringing a […]

By Dr Mark Chao, et al. New immunotherapies that integrate innate and adaptive immune responses may increase efficacy against many cancers, and have the potential to expand the range of tumours and patients that can be treated with immunotherapy. Over the past decade, insights into the molecular mechanisms that cancer cells use to evade T-cells, […]

Flow Cytometry – The advanced systems overcoming drug discovery pain points By Helen Stewart-Miller and Dr Richard Massey Flow cytometry is an invaluable technique for the characterisation of highly heterogeneous cell populations. Thanks to improvements in throughput, automation and multichannel detection capabilities, recent years have seen its use expand across a wide range of drug […]

How Mergers and Acquisitions Will Drive Oncology Research in 2019 By Dr Michael Seiler 2019 got off to a fast start for oncology drug discovery, with numerous mergers, acquisitions and collaborations announced in quick succession. These ventures provide a window into key trends in oncology research, where investigators are likely to focus their efforts, and […]

From Genotype to Phenotype: Leveraging functional genomics in oncology By Dr Menelas Pangalos & Steve Rees et al. A challenge in drug discovery is that, at best, only around one in five drug candidates will lead to the launch of a medicine. In 2011, AstraZeneca initiated a strategic ‘5R Framework’ focusing on identifying drug projects […]

Integrated Platform Drug Discovery and Development Companies – Part 2: Comparative analysis By Dr Stephen Naylor and Dr Kirkwood A. Pritchard Jr Spring 2019 Large pharmaceutical companies have struggled to efficiently implement tools, technologies and platforms into their drug discovery and development (DDD) programmes. More recently there have been attempts by small-to-medium sized pharmaceutical companies […]

3D Organoid Cell Culture – Optimising disease models for research and drug discovery By Dr Amanda Linkous, Hilary Sherman, Iris Li and Dr Richard M. Eglen The use of human-induced pluripotent stem cells (HiPSCs) continues to grow in three-dimensional (3D) spheroid and organoid culture. Although advances in 3D cell culture systems are improving drug target […]

Systems Pharmacology: When multi-targeting is advantageous By Dr Kirkwood A. Pritchard Jr, Dr Dustin P. Martin and Dr Stephen Naylor The safety and efficacy of therapeutic drugs still requires improvement. In part this is due to the promiscuity of individual drugs, which on average can interact with an estimated 6-28 other off-target moieties. However, the […]

The Growth of Organoids in Cancer Drug Discovery By Dr J. Mark Treherne, et al., Will the automated expansion of organoids help improve the productivity of cancer drug discovery? Increasingly, complex cell-based assays and tissues are routinely used as part of cancer drug discovery. However, conventional monolayer or suspension cultures can be poorly predictive of […]

Beyond SEND: Leveraging non-clinical data to drive translational research forward By Katherine Briggs, et al., This article will discuss some of the potential use cases that Standard for Exchange of Nonclinical Data (SEND), datasets can support. Both to advance translational research across multiple research sites and also to drive efficiencies with research partners including contract […]

3D Cell Culture – Engineering Composable, Disease-Tunable 3D Human Microtissues for Drug Discovery By Dr Patrick Guye, Dr Eva Thoma and Dr Olivier Frey In this article, we will share some of what we have learned over the past 10 years as pioneers in the 3D cell culture space and provide guidance for those who […]

The Future Of Drug Discovery – Cutting-edge technologies meet traditional paradigms in assay development By Dr Roger Bosse With more than 1,500 drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on the market, the easiest disease targets are already covered (1). Today’s scientists are challenged to find new compounds, acting alone or in combination, […]

Integrated Platform Drug Discovery and Development Companies – Part 1 By Dr Urban A. Kiernan and Dr Stephen Naylor Technology was lauded as the saviour of the drug discovery and development (DDD) process during the late 1990s. A myriad of independent companies developed and offered ‘innovative’ tools, technologies and platforms (TTPs) to pharmaceutical companies in […]