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Issue 3 2012

 

Figure 2: Showing 96 and 384 well micro-plates which have has gel based bioreactor system incorporated within the body of the plate in regions in between and surrounding the wells
Figure 2: Showing 96 and 384 well micro-plates which have has gel based bioreactor system incorporated within the body of the plate in regions in between and surrounding the wells
article

A reduction to practise for siRNA screening utilising high conent analysis (HCA) technologies

10 July 2012 | By Anthony Mitchell Davies & Anne Marie Byrne, Department of Clinical Medicine Trinity College Dublin; Holger Erfle, BIOQUANT-Zentrum Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; Graham Donnelly, Rita Murray & Peadar MacGabhann, Biocroi Ltd

One of the major limitations of performing large-scale High Content Analysis (HCA) screens is reagent cost, indeed this fact has been a key driver in the development of assay size reduction strategies here at The Irish National Centre for High Content Screening and Analysis at Trinity College’s Department of Medicine.…

Pills Powder
Pills Powder
article

Evolution of drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics in drug discovery and development

10 July 2012 | By Dr. Dermot McGinnity, Innovative Medicines, AstraZeneca R&D

Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics (DMPK) is a scientific discipline once primarily associated with safety evaluation in drug development that has, in the last two decades, become a core discipline within drug discovery, development and even post-marketing. Approximately 20 years ago, sub-optimal DMPK properties were recognised as a contributor to the…

article

Breaking old habits: Moving away from commonly used buffers in pharmaceuticals

10 July 2012 | By David Sek, Research Scientist, Pfizer

One of the key factors in stabilising proteins is determining the optimal pH and buffer system to provide adequate solubility and stability. Currently, three buffers, citrate, phosphate and acetate, make up the majority of buffers used in parenteral pharmaceuticals approved by the FDA, but less precedented excipients are certainly available…

Figure 3: The global TSC spectrum of caffeine Form I
Figure 3: The global TSC spectrum of caffeine Form I
article

Applications of thermally stimulated current spectroscopy in pharmaceutical research

10 July 2012 | By Milan Antonijević, School of Science, University of Greenwich

Thermally Stimulated Current Spectroscopy (TSC) is a new tool that can be used to analyse pharmaceutically important molecules. TSC studies are usually conducted to provide additional information about molecular mobility in the solid state, and as a result characterise phase transitions that are related to thermal transitions in the crystalline…

FIGURE 1 Parties involved in the biomarker discovery and validation process. Medical Science is responsible for sample collection, pre-classification and storage in biobanks. Analytical Chemistry is responsible for developing sample preparation protocols and analytical platforms both for comprehensive biomarker discovery on low numbers of samples as well as for the targeted validation in large sample cohorts. Bioinformatics is responsible for performing the data pre-processing and statistical analysis as well as the validation of data and clinical information provided by the analytical and medical partners. A close collaboration and information exchange is essential for the success of biomarker research
FIGURE 1 Parties involved in the biomarker discovery and validation process. Medical Science is responsible for sample collection, pre-classification and storage in biobanks. Analytical Chemistry is responsible for developing sample preparation protocols and analytical platforms both for comprehensive biomarker discovery on low numbers of samples as well as for the targeted validation in large sample cohorts. Bioinformatics is responsible for performing the data pre-processing and statistical analysis as well as the validation of data and clinical information provided by the analytical and medical partners. A close collaboration and information exchange is essential for the success of biomarker research
article

Discovery and validation of protein biomarkers

10 July 2012 | By Péter Horvatovich & Rainer Bischoff, Analytical Biochemistry, Department of Pharmacy, University of Groningen

Biomarkers are biological characteristics that are objectively measured and evaluated as indicators of normal biological processes, pathogenic processes or pharmacological responses to a therapeutic intervention. Biomarkers can be used to determine disease onset, progression, efficacy of drug treatment, patient susceptibility to develop a certain type of disease or predict efficacy…

What is label-free screening and why use it in drug discovery?
What is label-free screening and why use it in drug discovery?
article

Ten years of siRNA – a clinical overview

10 July 2012 | By Katharina Bruno, Principal Scientist, Technical Research & Development (TRD), Novartis Pharma AG

In 2001, small interfering RNA (siRNA) was discovered as the mediator of RNA interference (RNAi), a transient and specific repression mechanism of protein expression1. After the pharmaceutical industry became aware of the intrinsic versatility and potential of this molecule, a race to develop the first siRNA based drug began. However,…

Reducing microbial contamination via sterile risk assessment
Reducing microbial contamination via sterile risk assessment
article

Rapid sterility testing and the impact of recent changes to the US Code of Federal Regulations

10 July 2012 | By Michael J. Miller, President, Microbiology Consultants, LLC

This is the third paper in our continuing series on Rapid Microbiological Methods (RMM) that will appear in European Pharmaceutical Review during 2012. Rapid sterility testing is one of a number of applications that novel microbiological technologies afford the pharmaceutical industry. RMM technologies have already been validated and implemented for…

drug discovery & drug development
drug discovery & drug development
article

The need for proteomic-based biomarkers in the drug development pipeline

10 July 2012 | By Paul C. Guest, Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, University of Cambridge and Sabine Bahn Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, University of Cambridge & Department of Neuroscience, Erasmus Medical Centre

Pharmaceutical companies are under increasing pressure to improve their efficiency and returns on drug discovery projects. This is a daunting task considering that the average drug costs approximately one billion US dollars to develop and takes around 12 years from initial discovery to reach the market1. In addition, approximately 70…