The latest trends in lab robotics and automation
15 July 2014 | By BioStrata
For those that couldn’t attend, here is a summary of some of the interesting insights shared at ELRIG’s recent Robotics and Automation 2014 Conference.
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Articles
Targeting the ubiquitin-proteasome system
The ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS) is a hierarchical enzymatic cascade that plays an essential role in a broad range of cellular pathways and is found in cytoplasmic and nuclear actions of all eukaryotic cells...
Heat shock proteins: A high content assay opportunity to measure cellular stress response
Heat shock proteins (HSPs) have been proposed as therapeutic targets for novel anticancer agents. However, candidates have thus far failed due to low tolerability, limiting their efficacy. This failure highlights our current inability to predict drug toxicity in patients, a Holy Grail in modern drug discovery. Paradoxically, the fundamental role…
Drug resistance mechanisms and target selection in disease treatment strategies
In November 2013, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) allowed for the first time the marketing of high-throughput DNA sequencing technology for diagnostic testing. It was a breakthrough year for Next Generation Sequencing (NGS)...
The therapeutic potential of RNA directed epigenetic regulation of transcription
Developments over the past decade have demonstrated that non-coding RNAs can exert control of transcriptional gene expression. Recent advances in genome-wide studies have revealed an abundance of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in human cells, which are as numerous as protein-coding genes...
Drug Target Review – Issue #1 2014
9 May 2014 | By Guido Rasi, Professor Sir Mark Pepys, Kenji Schorpp et al.
We are delighted to welcome you to the inaugural issue of European Drug Target Review, a magazine focused on the changing landscape of the drug discovery industry...
Genomics In-Depth Focus 2014
7 May 2014 | By Kevin V. Morris, Bhupinder Bhullar
In this Genomics In-Depth Focus: Kevin V. Morris discusses the therapeutic potential of RNA directed epigenetic regulation of transcription, and Bhupinder Bhullar looks at drug resistance mechanisms and target selection in disease treatment strategies...
Screening In-Depth Focus 2014
7 May 2014 | By Kenji Schorpp, Christophe Antczak, Balajee Somalinga, Hakim Djaballah
In this Screening In-Depth Focus: Kenji Schorpp looks at targeting the ubiquitin-proteasome system, and experts from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center discuss a high content assay opportunity to measure cellular stress response using heat shock proteins...
Foreword: Enabling the development of new medicines
Over the past few years, the landscape of medicines development has shifted. We have seen a decline in the research and development productivity of the pharmaceutical industry. Innovator drug developers have been confronted with the current pressure on healthcare budgets, as well as a wave of patent expiries for blockbuster…
Building GPCR screening cascades for lead generation
Although this target class is already heavily investigated, there are still a significant number of opportunities for discovery of novel drugs targeting additional GPCRs. In this review, scientists from AstraZeneca R&D discuss the general build-up of GPCR screening cascades for discovery of chemical leads that can be further developed into…
Academia Big Pharma collaboration in drug development
Clearly what is needed is a synergistic collaboration bringing together the respective competence and expertise of academia and industry. All the major pharmaceutical companies have recognised this need and have introduced a range of different models for association with academia and small biotech or biopharma companies. Attempted solutions range from…
Oncology biomarkers in clinical practice – a new horizon
The ability to individualise a patient’s care has become a particularly pressing issue in the field of cancer therapeutics as there is a growing recognition that both the global incidence of cancer is steadily rising and the associated costs in terms of treatment and lost productivity are ever increasing. Advances…
Marine Drug Discovery: Realising the potential of therapeutics from marine sources – lessons from Big Pharma
Oceans cover 70 per cent of planet Earth and it is only in the 20th century that organisms from this environment began to be assessed for their potential to provide new drugs. A new marine derived pharmaceutical pipeline has started flowing, delivering new chemical entities with unique modes of action…
Molecular Target Validation in preclinical drug discovery
Preclinical drug target validation has the aim to increase confidence in a particular drug target. The process proves the initial hypothesis that a particular molecular target is key or even causative for pathogenic or symptomatic mechanisms in a disease. Several success factors seem to be of particular importance for the…
Nuclear Magnetic Resonance as a tool for chemokine inhibitor discovery
Chemokines orchestrate leukocyte trafficking in the immune system, but unregulated or inappropriate chemokine activity plays a key role in many inflammatory, allergic and autoimmune diseases as well as metastatic tumour progression. The chemokine network is comprised of ~50 distinct ligands that specifically bind and activate a family of 20 G…
