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Alongside established drug target classes, innovative approaches are addressing previously undruggable target classes such as protein–protein interactions.
20 June 2011 | By Willem G.E.J. Schoonen, Walter M.A. Westerink, Femke M. van de Water and G. Jean Horbach, Department of Toxicology & Drug Disposition, Merck Sharp & Dohme
The application of High Content Screening for in vitro toxicity testing is a relatively new approach in the preclinical research phase of drug development. A battery of tests have been developed for screening on general parameters such as cytotoxicity, while more dedicated assays are available with respect to the identification…
16 December 2010 | By Carl A.K. Borrebaeck and Christer Wingren, Department of Immunotechnology and CREATE Health, Lund University
Deciphering crude proteomes in the quest for candidate biomarker signatures for disease diagnostics, prognostics and classifications has proven to be challenging using conventional proteomic technologies. In this context, affinity protein microarrays, and in particular recombinant antibody microarrays, have recently been established as a promising approach within high-throughput (disease) proteomics1-3. The…
1 November 2010 | By Andreas Vogt, Department of Pharmacology and Chemical Biology and the University of Pittsburgh Drug Discovery Institute, University of Pittsburgh
Cell motility plays an important role in many human diseases and normal cellular processes. Cell migration is critical for wound healing as cells of the inflammatory system and fibroblasts populate the wound and initiate re-epithelialisation1. On the other hand, unregulated cell migration contributes to cancer cell invasion and metastasis2. Agents…
19 August 2010 | By Karol Kozak, Angela Bauch, Gabor Csucs,Tomasz Pylak & Bernd Rinn, ETH Zurich
As High Content Screening (HCS) has moved into the mainstream for biological and pharmaceutical investigations, a lag of well integrated pipelines for automated acquisition, management and analysis of HCS results turns out to be a bottleneck for fully leveraging the wealth of information contained in a screen and moving to…
25 June 2010 | By Peter Alcock, Colin Bath, Carolyn Blackett & Peter B. Simpson, Screening & Assay Sciences, Cancer Bioscience, AstraZeneca Alderley Park
Over the last 15 years, vendors have offered microscope-based instruments capable of producing images of fluorescent labelled components of cells grown in microtitre plates. These instruments are typically bundled with analysis software capable of defining the relative distribution of several fluorescent markers on a cell by cell basis1,2. As the…
22 February 2010 | By
The World Cancer Report (2008) predicts a 50% worldwide increase in cancer incidence by 2030, predicting 75 million people living within a five year diagnosis of cancer1. This increase is partially fuelled by significant medical advances in developed countries ensuring people live longer. However, it is also attributable to developing…
12 December 2009 | By
Automated high content screening platforms are capable of producing thousands of images per day. The challenge is to use appropriate analysis methods to extract the maximum amount of biologically-relevant information from these images. In this article we summarise the basic concepts of image analysis and highlight examples of both open-source…
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…
3 December 2008 | By
Approximately 45% of all deaths and 50% of all hospitalisations in the western world are a direct result of cardiovascular disease. Cardiomyocyte hypertrophy is a mechanism by which myocardial mass is increased to compensate for any elevated physical demands placed upon the heart, thus ensuring that adequate perfusion of body…
29 September 2008 | By
Traditional drug discovery screening assays tend to employ simplistic endpoint assays that often monitor the activity of a single target. While these approaches are amenable to high-throughput screening they provide limited information on how candidate drugs influence complex biological systems that exist in vivo. Such limitations are a contributing factor…
2 August 2008 | By
Cell-based assays are essential for drug discovery and development as they increase the quality of lead compounds due to their physiological relevance. Toxicological data can be gathered during the early phases of hit selection and verification, reducing costs and attrition rates during clinical trials.
19 June 2008 | By
Phenotypic drug discovery (PDD) has come of age – again. Using a microscope to observe a cell, one of the oldest techniques available to a cellular biologist dates back to the 17th century studies of Antony van Leeuwenhoek and his characterisation of ‘animalcules’. These early analyses, which simply described the…
19 June 2008 | By
European Pharmaceutical Review has brought together four individuals from different sides of the scientific palette to discuss current and future issues surrounding secondary screening and maximising its potential.
19 March 2008 | By
High content screening (HCS) is based on subcellular imaging using automated microscopy, in combination with automated image analysis. High content screening was first introduced over a decade ago as one of the promising new technologies, intended to address the bottleneck of secondary assays in the development of new drugs. Since…
