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21 September 2007 | By Timothy Allison & Sanjeev Munshi, Department of Structural Biology, Merck, Westpoint, PA
Protein crystallography is an integral component of the structure-guided drug discovery process. Rapid access to structural information about drug targets as well as bound ligands has been pivotal in accelerating lead identification and optimisation processes...
21 September 2007 | By Dr Ernesto Freire, Faculty Professor, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore
Drug development involves the identification and subsequent optimisation of low molecular weight compounds with a desired biological activity. Often, the initial binding affinity of those compounds towards their intended target needs to be improved by five or more orders of magnitude before they become viable drug candidates; a process that…
21 September 2007 | By Bikash Chatterjee, President of Pharmatech Associates, Inc and Jeremy Green, Senior Consultant for Pharmatech Associates, Inc.
The FDA’s recent guidance regarding Process Analytical Technology (PAT) offers the pharmaceutical and biotech industries an unprecedented opportunity to leverage hard-won experience with scientific inquiry and innovation. However, the leap to PAT is significant for even the most rigorous development program. Many aspects of Six Sigma; including its use of…
Sally Burtles, Stephen Freestone and Eddie Caffrey discuss the future direction for clinical trials, covering the main challenges faced in the current application of Phase I clinical trials, changes the industry be implementing in order to further improve the efficiency of early clinical trials and how the Regulatory bodies’ guidance…
21 July 2007 | By Jost Seibler, Head of Technology Development, Artemis Pharmaceuticals and Frieder Schwenk, Principal Scientist, University of Applied Science, Department of Applied Natural Sciences, Gelsenkirchen, Germany
Among the genetic model organisms, the laboratory mouse (Mus musculus) has a predominant role in the study of human disease and in pre-clinical drug development. Apart from the high degree of sequence homology of mouse and human genomes, and similarities in many physiological aspects, advanced targeting technologies make the crucial…
21 July 2007 | By Dr. Neil Clarke and Dr. Mark Edbrooke, GlaxoSmithKline Research and Development, Hertfordshire, UK
The archetypal microRNAs, lin-4 and let-7, were discovered in the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans over a decade ago and, at that time, no one would have predicted that they would be anything other than an interesting feature of worm developmental biology. However, in recent years there has been an explosion…
21 July 2007 | By Neil Kipling, CEO, IDBS
Neil Kipling, CEO of leading advanced software solutions provider for the life sciences industry, IDBS, talks to us about current and future functions of biology and data capture within the life sciences industry...
21 July 2007 | By Kerstin Korn and Eberhard Krausz (Corresponding author), Head, HT-Technology Development Studio (TDS), Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG)
High-content screening (HCS) is defined as multiplexed functional screening based on imaging multiple markers (e.g. nuclei, mitochondria etc.) in the physiologic context of intact cells by extraction of multicolour fluorescence information1. It is based on a combination of advanced fluorescence-based reagents, modern liquid handling devices, automated imaging systems and data…
21 July 2007 | By William P. Janzen, President and COO, Amphora Discovery
Automated systems and modern pharmaceuticals have both had a hugely positive impact on human life. While these technologies developed in parallel with one another during roughly the same time period in the early 20th century, they didn’t interact until automation found its way into the laboratory in the 1970s.
21 July 2007 | By Dr. Simon Weston, Programme Delivery Leader, Discovery, AstraZeneca
The paper notebook has played a central role in the recording of the methods and results of scientific research for centuries. It has some strengths: portability, flexibility and (to some degree) incontrovertibility but in an enterprise environment it has many weaknesses. Chief among these is that the vast majority of…
21 July 2007 | By Payal Roy-Choudhury, PhD Student, Fermentation Centre, Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy & Biomedical Science, Glasgow, UK
Biopharmaceuticals are the fastest growing sector of the pharmaceutical industry[1]; with monoclonal’s being the key biopharmaceutical products representing a significant proportion of the current business focus. It is anticipated that this new generation of biopharmaceuticals will revolutionise clinical medicine over the next 5-10 years.
21 July 2007 | By Robert Johnson, Director, Dialogue
The modern microbiological laboratory needs to change and become more innovative in its approach to microbial detection, enumeration and identification.
European Pharmaceutical Review brings you a comprehensive guide to the current developments and possible future innovations within Process Analytical Technologies...
23 May 2007 | By John J. Rossi, Division of Molecular Biology, Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope, Graduate School of Biological Sciences, Duarte, United States
RNA interference (RNAi) is a regulatory mechanism of most eukaryotic cells that uses small double stranded RNA (dsRNA) molecules as triggers to direct homology-dependent control of gene activity (Almeida and Allshire 2005).
23 May 2007 | By Professor Stephen R Pennington, Proteome Research Centre, Conway Institute of Biomolecular and Biomedical Sciences, University College Dublin
Until recently the use of proteomics in the biomedical arena has included programmes aimed at the elucidation of cellular responses to extracellular stimuli by known and potential drugs. It has been anticipated that these will lead to the elucidation of the basic mechanisms of cellular responses, potential identification of new…
