Drug Discovery News and Research

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The drug discovery process begins with recognizing a disease or clinical condition in which there is a lack of adequate medical treatment. Once a potential drug has been identified, pre-clinical research can begin. This process includes several stages; the first of which involves identifying and validating the prospective drug’s target through assay development, high throughput screening, hit identification and finally, lead optimization. Once the pre-clinical process is complete, the newly synthesized drug candidate is selected for future clinical development.

Protein Data Bank archive releases new coronavirus protease structure

The Protein Data Bank archive, which contains more than 160,000 3D structures for proteins, DNA, and RNA, this month released a new Coronavirus protease structure following the recent coronavirus outbreak, an ongoing viral epidemic primarily affecting mainland China that now threatens to spread to populations in other parts of the world.

10 Feb 2020

Powerful vaccine could boost the effectiveness of cancer immunotherapy

Supercharging the mutation rate in cancer cells can create a powerful vaccine that is able to boost the effectiveness of immunotherapy, a major new study reports.

9 Feb 2020

Purdue-developed 'fluorescent markers' begin Phase 3 clinical trials

On Target Laboratories Inc., a privately held biotechnology company developing the use of Purdue University-discovered fluorescent markers to target and illuminate cancer during surgery, has announced the results of a multi-institutional Phase 2 clinical trial in which outcomes were improved for 26% of patients undergoing pulmonary resection for non-small-cell lung cancer.

6 Feb 2020

Re-engineered plant compound reduces morphine-seeking behaviors in mice

The abuse of prescription and illegal opioids, such as morphine and heroin, is a major problem in the U.S., with devastating public health, economic and social consequences.

5 Feb 2020

Study underscores the need for more precise rare disease definitions

Some diseases are like black swans. They occur so rarely that many physicians never encounter them in their clinical practice, complicating efforts to treat them.

5 Feb 2020

FDA gives clearance to IND application for Calibr's 'switchable' CAR-T cell therapy

Calibr, the drug discovery and development division of Scripps Research, today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has given clearance to the Investigational New Drug (IND) application for Calibr's "switchable" CAR-T cell therapy, which is being evaluated for the treatment of certain cancers, including relapsed/refractory B-cell malignancies such as non-Hodgkin lymphoma and chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

3 Feb 2020

Potential new biomarker for vascular dementia identified

Vascular dementia is caused by a defect on blood flow arrival to the brain, which consequently generates neuronal damage.

30 Jan 2020

New target protein linked to regulation, movement of tumor-associated macrophages

Developing a therapy to combat cancer remains one of the most difficult challenges in medical research. Cancer owes its notorious identity to the fact that the cancer cells use the host's own immune system to grow and spread, ultimately becoming deadly.

30 Jan 2020

ERA4TB to transform the development of new therapies for tuberculosis

With a team of more than thirty public and private organisations and a budget over 200 million euro, ERA4TB aims to radically transform the way in which new therapies are developed for the treatment of tuberculosis.

30 Jan 2020

Novel inhibitor to fight metastatic prostate cancer shows promise

When prostate cancer spreads it is often a deadly disease, but now a Stony Brook University-led research team believes a new approach that inhibits a specific fatty acid binding protein (FABP) may be the key to halting disease progression.

30 Jan 2020

Robotic search for drugs that block sperm motility

The hunt for the first male contraceptive pill is on, and scientists at Dundee University may have the needed tool to find it – a robotic screening system.

29 Jan 2020

Researchers create new brain cancer model using genetically engineered pluripotent stem cells

Using genetically engineered human pluripotent stem cells, University of California San Diego School of Medicine researchers created a new type of cancer model to study in vivo how glioblastoma, the most common and aggressive form of brain cancer, develops and changes over time.

29 Jan 2020

Nicoya launches groundbreaking new SPR system to accelerate drug discovery

Nicoya, a leading provider of advanced analytical instruments for the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, today announced the launch of Alto, the world’s first fully-automated, high-throughput benchtop surface plasmon resonance (SPR) system.

From Nicoya Lifesciences 28 Jan 2020

Benchling launches new solution to help life science companies maximize lab automation investments

Benchling, the leading life sciences R&D cloud platform, today announced the launch of Benchling for Lab Automation, a new solution to help life sciences companies maximize lab automation investments.

From Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening (SLAS2020) 28 Jan 2020

Why new cancer drugs take so long to reach the market

A new analysis of cancer drug development by researchers at the Institute of Cancer Research, London, shows that the more revolutionary a new cancer drug is, the longer it takes to reach patients in the UK’s National Health Service healthcare system. In other words, refinements on earlier drugs or drugs which are more conventional in their effects make it to the marketplace faster

28 Jan 2020