System biology

Disruptive Approaches To Accelerate Drug Discovery and Development (Part 1) By Ibis Sanchez- Serrano, Dr Tom Pfeifer and Dr Rathnam Chaguturu This article is part 1 of 2, and covers tools, technologies and the core model of disruptive approaches to accelerate drug discovery and development. Tesla intends to implement and practise an ‘open source’ philosophy […]

Kinases – Shedding Light on Kinase Drug Discovery By Dr Gary Allenby This article discusses the application of new assay technologies to shed light on kinase drug discovery. The human kinome comprises 518 known protein kinases and more than 20 lipid kinases. Nearly all aspects of control within a cell are modulated by reversible phosphorylation […]

Practicalities of Conducting Replication Studies in Preclinical Cancer Biology By Dr Nicole Perfito, Dr Rachel Tsui & Dr Elizabeth Iorns The first results for the Reproducibility Project: Cancer Biology, offer insights into the time and cost of conducting replication studies in preclinical cancer biology. While many agree that developing a therapeutic should not be pursued […]

Technology Innovation Will Help Prepare Drug Discovery for Smart Screening Era By Dr Clive Green and Dr Philip Spencer Drug discovery is undergoing a transformation powered by advances that magnitude more molecules and enable smarter selection of compounds. We are on the cusp of having previously unimaginable amounts of information about each target and many […]

High-Throughput Spheroid Culture – Applications of 3D Cell Culture By Hilary Sherman, Dr Richard M. Eglen & Audrey Bergeron In this article, we describe applications of high-throughput screening using 3D cell culture to assess cell viability. In addition, we highlight the importance of including multiple cell types in 3D assays to more accurately assess potency […]

By Dr Simon Moore, Dr Kirsty Harper & Dr Sylwia Marshall The impact and effective routes of non-clinical safety assessment of inhaled biopharmaceuticals. With the rapid generation of biological screening data and the potential for innovative selection of compounds for screening, the importance of multivendor collaborations together with improvements in automation has never been greater […]

Therapeutic Antibodies – New tools to enhance the antibody drug pipeline By Dr Robert Ford & Dr Toni Hoffmann Therapeutic antibodies are the fastest growing class of drugs, with continuous increases in the number of innovator and biosimilar drugs in development. Drug development and clinical trials necessitate the ability to specifically, sensitively and reproducibly measure […]

Breaking Down Silos in Drug Development – Why interdisciplinary integration is fundamental for pharma’s future By Dr Paul Overton In this article, we consider the symptoms and consequences of a silo culture in drug development, and look at how interdisciplinary integration should be at the heart of every pharma business model. A silo mentality is […]

Emerging Drug Discovery Alliance Models By Dr Swati Prasad, Mary Louise Bell & Dr Charles McOsker The current environment for early-stage drug discovery and development is fluid and the probability of success continues to be challenging. Advancing an idea from an academic or basic research setting into a therapeutic product that benefits patients is time- […]

By Dr Jason Mellad The sequencing of the human genome in 2003 signalled the dawn of an exciting new era for genetic medicine. Yet almost 15 years later it has become clear that our genes alone cannot predict our susceptibility to most complex diseases or fully explain fundamental aspects of human development and ageing. Epigenetics […]

Phenotypic Screening – Advancing the science from discovery to regulatory science By Dr Ellen L. Berg Phenotypic screening is transforming drug discovery as advances are made in development of human-based physiologically-relevant in vitro systems. Integration of phenotypic drug discovery approaches with target-based screening can improve success rates as assays can be leveraged for the discovery […]

Novel Drug Targets From Phenotypic Screening By Dr Jim Freeth, Dr Elizabeth Kingsley & Jo Soden Identifying functional molecules with the potential to be developed into new therapeutics is often the sole aim of phenotypic drug discovery. However, the approach also provides valuable opportunities to uncover previously unknown, disease-specific drug receptors that can then be […]

How The B6 Mouse Strain is Revolutionising Drug Discovery By Dr Philip Dube Inbred mice are critical tools in biomedical research and one particular strain, known as C57BL/6 (Black 6 or B6, for short), is rapidly becoming the standard model for many applications and revolutionising modern research. Understanding the B6 mouse, its origins, characteristics and […]

New Approaches to Sample Identification Tracking and Technologies for Maintaining Stored Sample Quality By Dr John Comley Safeguarding the quality of stored samples (both compounds and biospecimens) must be the driving ethos in compound management stores and biorepositories. Yet there are few innovations in available sample storage technologies that can help them easily identify poor […]

The Importance of Heterocyclic Compounds in Anti-Cancer Drug Design By Simon Pearce Heterocycles are key structural components of many of the anti-cancer drugs available on the market today. Indeed, of the novel molecular anti-cancer agents approved by the FDA between 2010 and 2015, almost two-thirds contained heterocyclic rings within their structures. Their prevalence in anti-cancer […]

Raising The Bar On The Biologics Potential Dr Michael Mouradian In the quest for safe, efficacious and profitable therapies, pharma research is changing. There is continued pressure to fill the drug pipeline and, at the same time, globalisation of personalised medicines is complex, expensive and requires a significant time commitment. With budgets being tight and […]