The challenges with antibody-based targeting of VEGF 12 February 2016 | By Sukmook Lee (Scripps Korea Antibody Institute) Antibody-based targeting of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is a highly successful and widely-used clinical treatment for angiogenesis-related diseases. Currently, bevacizumab (Avastin; Genentech) and ranibizumab (Lucentis; Genentech/Roche) are the leading antibody drugs for targeting VEGF...
Wanted: Zika virus researchers 10 February 2016 | By Victoria White, Digital Content Producer, Drug Target Review The MRC has launched a £1m rapid response funding initiative to better understand the nature of the risk posed by the Zika virus. Find out about this initiative and NIH's call for research here...
canSAR: a portal to Big Data for drug discovery 9 February 2016 | By Dr Bissan Al-Lazikani and Elizabeth Coker, The Institute of Cancer Research, London Dr Bissan Al-Lazikani and Elizabeth Coker discuss canSAR: the first public domain example of Big Data for drug discovery...
Antibody fragment technology and avian IgY antibodies: a powerful combination 5 February 2016 | By Carol Harley (IBMC and i3S), Ricardo Vieira-Pires (University of Coimbra) Recombinant monoclonal antibodies or antibody biologics have been successfully developed as diagnostic and therapeutic agents...
Zika Virus: a public emergency of international concern 4 February 2016 | By Victoria White, Digital Content Producer, Drug Target Review The Zika virus has taken hold in South America. Its possible link to microcephaly in newborn babies and neurological conditions has led the World Health Organization to declare a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. Here we discuss the virus, countermeasures and the race for a vaccine...
Drug Target Review’s top 10 stories from 2015 28 January 2016 | By Victoria White, Digital Content Producer, Drug Target Review 2015 was an exciting year for the drug discovery industry. Here we look at a selection of stories that particularly stood out for us…
Analysing recombinant proteins by mass spectrometry 5 December 2015 | By Claire Strain-Damerell (Structural Genomics Consortium), Nicola Burgess-Brown (Structural Genomics Consortium), Pravin Mahajan (Structural Genomics Consortium), Rod Chalk (Structural Genomics Consortium) The drug discovery landscape is changing: no longer limited to big pharma, it is now within reach of academics and small consortia alike. Regardless of the setting, drug discovery requirements are always the same: strong biological theory, good chemical starting material and high quality protein samples from which to determine…
Mass spectrometry and systems biology approaches in drug target discovery 5 December 2015 | By Michelle Hill (University of Queensland) Cells, organs and organisms are complex biological systems consisting of inter-related components that co-operatively work to maintain function and respond to change. Malfunction of any component can lead to pathologies and disease, leading to system-wide changes and subsequent adaptation. Hence, the ability to study and predict system behaviour will considerably…
Drug Target Review – Issue #4 2015 3 December 2015 | By Drug Target Review Included in this issue: Biomarkers, Mass Spectrometry, Target Validation, Drug Development, Personalised Medicines, Next-Generation Sequencing, Protein Expression, Companion Diagnostics, and much more...
Mass Spectrometry In-Depth Focus 2015 3 December 2015 | By Claire Strain-Damerell (Structural Genomics Consortium), Michelle Hill (University of Queensland), Nicola Burgess-Brown (Structural Genomics Consortium), Pravin Mahajan (Structural Genomics Consortium), Rod Chalk (Structural Genomics Consortium) In this Mass Spectrometry In-Depth Focus: Michelle M. Hill from University of Queensland discusses Mass spectrometric and systems biology approaches in drug target discovery, and Nicola Burgess-Brown, Rod Chalk, Claire Strain-Damerell and Pravin Mahajan from the Structural Genomics Consortium look at analysing recombinant proteins by mass spectrometry...
Health and Safety Law – Avoid falling off a ladder and into the dock 3 December 2015 | By Jacob Gifford Head (Thomas More Chambers) Health and Safety Law rarely arouses interest, either amongst companies or lawyers, yet its importance is growing and it has become the area in which companies and their directors are likely to find themselves in the dock, facing a criminal prosecution.
Biomarkers as molecular footprints for cancer therapy: current perspectives and promises 3 December 2015 | By Firoz Anwar (King Abdulaziz University), Mahfoozur Rahman (Sam Higginbottom Institute of Agriculture Technology & Sciences), Sarwar Beg (Panjab University), Vikas Kumar (Sam Higginbottom Institute of Agriculture Technology & Sciences) Knowledge about cancer biomarkers has increased tremendously and provides clinicians and researchers with valued opportunities to understand the molecular mechanism of cancer, thus applying it to effective, early-stage diagnosis and treatment. Cancer biomarkers include a vast range of biochemical molecules such as nucleic acids, proteins, sugars, lipids, small metabolites, cytogenetic…
The challenges associated with ‘de-risking’ early-stage therapeutic targets 3 December 2015 | By Ahmad Kamal (MRC Technology), Catherine Kettleborough (MRC Technology), Debbie Taylor (MRC Technology), Tim Chapman (MRC Technology) The pharmaceutical industry is searching for novel drug targets that could produce the next generation of ‘first-in-class’ therapeutic agents. The challenge for academia is to identify and translate such targets and to provide starting points and confidence in the underlying science. The aim should be to generate evidence that modulation…
Enabling new targets by integrated lead discovery 3 December 2015 | By Sylvain Cottens (Novartis), Ulrich Schopfer (Novartis) Progress in the understanding of disease mechanisms provides new opportunities to discover molecules that modulate disease. To capitalise on these opportunities, successful lead discovery strategies need to build on insights into how a cellular phenotype or a target contributes to disease biology. Recent advances in induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs),…
3D printing: A new era for personalised medicines? 3 December 2015 | By Dr Simon Gaisford (University College London School of Pharmacy) 3D printing (3DP) is attracting increasing interest as a new method of fabricating pharmaceutical products, especially with the recent United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of the first three-dimensional (3D) printed tablet Spritam® (levetiracetam). 3DP is considered to be an additive manufacturing technique, because regardless of their principles of…
