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Article 4: Optimisation of the PCR step of a qPCR assay

30 July 2009 | By

The deceptive simplicity of a typical qPCR assay is an important reason for the exponential growth in the adoption of qPCR-related technologies for both research and diagnostic applications. The only requirements for obtaining ostensibly quantitative data are a mixing of primers, DNA and a mastermix, their distribution into individual tubes…

High throughput and high content screening microscopy: A microscopy based guideline

30 July 2009 | By

The understanding of properties of any biological system requires a detailed and quantitative analysis of its parts and their interactions. As different processes within a system occur at defined space and time, each process holds its own optimal observation and investigation technique. One of the most powerful tools to analyse…

Cellular Imaging & Analysis Business Unit

30 July 2009 | By

Mark Collins from Thermo Fisher Scientific, who provide analytical instruments, laboratory equipment, software, services, consumables and reagents, talks to us about current developments and future changes.

Drug-drug interactions: tools for drug transporter protein studies

30 July 2009 | By

Drug transporters are membrane proteins involved in the uptake or efflux of drugs by several tissues such as the intestine, liver, kidney and brain. They can have a significant impact on the pharmacokinetics of endogenous and exogenous compounds. Also, co-administered drugs or nutrients can influence the transporter activity which may…

QbD and PAT: From Science to Compliance

30 July 2009 | By Pedro E. Hernandez-Abad, Associate Director; Jun Huang, Principal PAT Scientist II and Saly Romero-Torres, Principal PAT Scientist, both Wyeth Pharmaceuticals

Boards of health like the Food and Drug Administration and European Medicines Agency and ICH guidelines Q8, Q9 and Q10, provide a framework for Quality by Design (QbD) that fully integrates drug substance and drug product development with the principles of Quality Risk Management (QRM), Process Analytical Technology (PAT) and…

Biomarkers in CNS drug discovery and development – focus on molecular blood markers

29 May 2009 | By

In established economies, mental disorders account for a larger burden of disease than all cancers combined. Yet reliable, measurable, markers of such diseases (biomarkers) are not uniformly known and without them, prediction that a new drug candidate makes contact with its target is poor. This is unfortunate because the attrition…

Quantitative Proteomics for Systems Biology

29 May 2009 | By

The pharmaceutical industry continues to experience a high attrition rate during the latter stages of small molecule therapeutic development, most disappointingly during the late, and highly expensive stages of Phase II and Phase III trial1. If left unchecked, it is likely that this late-stage failure in drug development will only…

Article 3: qPCR Assay Design

29 May 2009 | By

Real-time PCR (qPCR) data are reliable only if they result from a robust qPCR assay that has been carefully designed, validated and optimised. This process requires an extensive assay design procedure aimed at generating an optimum primer/probe/amplicon combination to allow accurate quantification of nucleic acids with minimum need for post-PCR…

Cellular reprogramming and its implications for therapeutic applications

29 May 2009 | By

Nearly fifty years ago, it was hypothesised that terminally differentiated cells such as fibroblasts could be forced to take on a pluripotent state, similar to the embryonic stem cells (ES cells). The basis of the concept is the observation that all cell types, with minor exceptions, have the same genetic…

Addressing unmet needs

29 May 2009 | By

Joydeep Goswami from Invitrogen, who provide essential life science technologies for disease research, drug discovery, and commercial bioproduction, talks to us about current and future developments at the company.

High Content Analysis Roundtable

29 May 2009 | By

1. How significantly do you feel the Drug Discovery Process has benefited from the application of High Content Analysis techniques? Anthony Davies: Since the mid 1990's High-content analysis (HCA) has primarily been used in the later stages of the pre-clinical drug discovery process. However, as HCA techniques have developed and…