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Stem Cells Roundtable

20 March 2009 | By

Dr Paul Andrews (Senior Scientist, ITI Stem Cell Technology Programme, University of Dundee), Professor Peter Andrews (co-Director of the Centre for Stem Cell Biology, University of Sheffield), Fergus McKenzie PhD. (Programme Manager, ITI-Life Sciences), Dr Stephen Minger (Senior Lecturer in Stem Cell Biology, Kings College London) and Will Rust (Section…

High content screening and analysis

20 March 2009 | By

Technological advances in robotised microscopy, liquid handling and image processing have enabled the emergence of high content screening where large numbers of specimens are automatically analysed. Here we overview the process discussing potential difficulties and solutions.

SBS 15th annual conference and exhibition

20 March 2009 | By

The 15th annual SBS conference and exhibition will be held in Lille, the capital of the Nord-Pas-de Calais region in Northern France. 2009 is a momentous year for SBS as it is the 15th anniversary of the formation of the Society and to celebrate the occasion this year's theme will…

The determination of structural changes of biopharmaceuticals during Freeze-Drying using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopyb

20 March 2009 | By ,

Peptides and proteins are powerful active therapeutic ingredients used in a wide variety of serious conditions and illnesses such as diabetes, arthritis or cancer. The application of these so-called biopharmaceuticals has been rapidly increasing since the middle of the 1990s, facilitated by improvements in modern recombinant DNA technology and biotechnological…

CIA 2009 overview

20 March 2009 | By

On the cold and snowy weekend of the 7th and 8th of February a group of academics, professionals and vendors met in Dublin for the first Cellular Imaging and Analysis event co-hosted by Trinity College Dublin and the European Pharmaceutical Review. Battling through the adverse weather conditions, delegates and speakers…

miRNA and viral infections in vertebrates

7 February 2009 | By

For plants and invertebrates, RNA interference is firmly established as an important antiviral mechanism. Even before Fire, Mello, and co-workers described RNA interference (RNAi) in worms in 19981 it was becoming clear that plants have an RNA-dependent pathway that protects against viral infections2. The pathway, then termed post-transcriptional gene silencing…

The importance of sample quality for qPCR

7 February 2009 | By Tania Nolan, Global Manager, Sigma-Aldrich and Stephen Bustin, Professor of Molecular Science, Institute of Cell and Molecular Science, Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry

The fluorescence-based quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR)1-3, has the ability to detect and measure minute amounts of DNA in a wide range of samples extracted from numerous sources. In combination with reverse transcription (RT), the use of this technology has revolutionised life sciences, agriculture and medical research4,5. In addition,…

Cellular Imaging and Analysis 2009

7 February 2009 | By

Cellular Imaging and Analysis is undoubtedly one of the hottest topics in the field of pharmaceutical research and development. Technical or diagnostic progress made almost hourly, this multidisciplinary set of challenges and opportunities is proving one of the most profoundly effective in the history of science.

Progress by the Proteomics Standards Initiative

7 February 2009 | By Dr Chris Taylor, Senior Software Engineer, European Bioinformatics Institute and Lennart Martens, Group Co-ordinator of Proteomics Services, European Bioinformatics Institute

There are compelling reasons for regularising the capture and description of proteomics data. Adhering to community-consensus specifications for the annotation of data sets can increase confidence in results and the conclusions drawn upon them, and supports data re-use; working with standard formats and vocabularies can raise efficiency and facilitates sophisticated…

Biomarkers and the tumour microenvironment

7 February 2009 | By

The current cost of developing a new medicine for the treatment of human disease has been estimated at $1 to $2 billion (€750-1.5 million1,2). Given progressive increases in the cost of developing new drugs, pharmaceutical companies are facing significant pressure to streamline discovery methods and increase the translational efficiency of…