By Dr George G. Harrigan The potential of metabolomics, a systems approach to biochemical pathway analysis, to yield scientific and commercial benefits to healthcare and biotechnology enterprises is increasingly recognised. This article discusses current applications and future developments and places an emphasis on incorporation of metabolomics within all aspects of… Read More
High Throughput Screening: meeting the challenges of more cell-based assays and HCS By Sandra Fox, MBA The use of high content screening and cell-based assays within high throughput screening (HTS) laboratories is on the increase but there are still many challenges to overcome. Each year, HTS laboratories perform slightly more… Read More
Development of an HTS FabD inhibition assay using a new 384-well filter plate to screen novel antibiotics by Dr Gatan Touyer, Dr Christine Miossec, and Dr Irvin Winkler Several enzymes are involved in the fatty acid biosynthesis (Fab) system of bacterial organisms. Unlike the mammalian FAS enzyme system in which… Read More
The Role of the Medicinal Chemist in the Drug Discovery Process: current status and future prospects By Dr Stevan W Djuric The need for the pharmaceutical industry to produce a constant stream of new NCEs has never been more paramount but with constantly changing R&D paradigms what is the role… Read More
Share Share Tweet Email Automated Patch Clamping: Setting a new standard for early hERG Automated Patch Clamping: Setting a new standard for early hERG By Dr John Comley Ion channel targets remain a top priority for many Pharma and Biotechs with most looking to increase their screening efforts in 2006. Read More
Advances in the imaging of biomolecules: the label-free intrinsic imaging approach By Dr Stuart Hassard, Dr Anthony D. Baxter and Dr John Hassard Many stages in the process of drug discovery require the separation, identification and analysis of biomolecules such as proteins, peptides and nucleic acids. Such analyses have traditionally… Read More
Applying the semantic web to drug discovery and development By Dr Eric Neumann There is much happening in drug development these days: new target classes, increasing costs, new forms of high throughput screening, and the promise of personalised medicine. But of all the issues, the one that now takes centre… Read More
High Content Screening - Emerging importance of novel reagents/probes and pathway analysis By Dr John Comley The number of high content screens will increase by 50% over the coming year; signal pathway analysis was seen as the most relevant high content screening (HCS) application; with greatest interest in applying HCS… Read More
Computer-aided design: progress towards more rational drug discovery By Dr Wolfgang H.B. Sauer Drug discovery is a science, a craft and an art, and often it requires a fair amount of serendipity or plain luck to succeed. Success is rare and costly, as evidenced by numerous reports and reviews (1,2). Read More
By Dr Y. Douglas Dolginow The art and science of prediction is a risky and humiliating exercise. As bad as we are at it, predicting things remains one of the fundamental human instincts, undoubtedly linked to a Darwinian selective advantage for our species. So no matter that the umbrella was… Read More
Ontologies - Semantic networks of pharmaceutical knowledge By Dr Stephen P. Gardner In the current climate making information more transparent to internal R&D staff and to external audiences such as regulators and consumers is crucial to business effectiveness. A new generation of semantic technologies capable of generating a consistent view… Read More
The search for validated biomarkers in the face of biosystems complexity By Professor Ian Humphery-Smith and Will Dracup As the pharmaceutical industry is all too well aware, the genomics and postgenomic sciences have delivered an excessive number of drug targets few of which have been well validated. Indeed, apart from… Read More
Compound Management - In pursuit of sample integrity By Dr John Comley In December 2004 HTStec published its report on Compound Management Trends. This market report summarises the results of a global benchmarking study on pharmaceutical compound management (CM), documenting current practices, issues and future trends in CM, with a… Read More
The Impact of RNAi on Drug Discovery By Dr Christopher P. Miller RNAi (RNA interference) is an important target validation tool that has risen to prominence since 2001. For a number of reasons, it has supplanted other pre-existing target validation tools and is now the method of choice for target… Read More
Overview of biomarkers in disease, drug discovery and development By Professor Stephen Naylor The pharmaceutical industry and the healthcare sector are both confronted with expensive technological innovation, escalating costs and pointed questions about productivity and efficiency. The parallels between the problems of producing new therapeutic agents and treating patients afflicted… Read More
The Use and Usefulness of Transgenic Systems in the Discovery of New Medicines By Professor Jan Tornell The pharmaceutical industry is faced with the challenge to deliver truly novel medicines to a market under financial pressure when pharmaceutical R&D becomes increasingly difficult and complex. This review will mainly focus on… Read More
