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.

UW Medicine receives $6 million from Ellison Foundation to revolutionize care for people with Alzheimer's

Alzheimer's disease, a severe and progressive degenerative condition that leads to dementia, affects millions of people in the U.S. At present, there is no cure. Unless new treatments emerge, the Centers for Disease Control estimates that approximately 13.8 million people in the U.S. will live with Alzheimer's-related dementia by 2050.

29 Mar 2015

Taconic, Cellaria partner to facilitate use of patient-derived xenografts for oncology research

Taconic Biosciences and Cellaria Biosciences today announced that the two companies have entered into a scientific collaboration designed to facilitate and improve the utility of patient-derived xenografts (PDXs) in animal models for oncology and immuno-oncology research. Cellaria’s novel methodologies for generating cells from patient tumors will complement Taconic’s industry-leading portfolio of tissue humanized mouse models, which are well-suited as hosts for PDXs.

27 Mar 2015

Philip Low to be recognized with AACR Award for Outstanding Achievement in Chemistry in Cancer Research

The American Association for Cancer Research will recognize Philip S. Low, PhD, with the ninth annual AACR Award for Outstanding Achievement in Chemistry in Cancer Research at the AACR Annual Meeting 2015, to be held in Philadelphia, April 18-22.

26 Mar 2015

The fight continues to end tuberculosis

Today is World TB Day. The Centenary Institute is one of the leading medical research institutes in Australia championing the fight to put an end to this insidious disease.

24 Mar 2015

Hypermethylation serves as protective barrier inhibiting development of ALS, FTD

Penn Medicine researchers have discovered that hypermethylation - the epigenetic ability to turn down or turn off a bad gene implicated in 10 to 30 percent of patients with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and Frontotemporal Degeneration (FTD) - serves as a protective barrier inhibiting the development of these diseases.

21 Mar 2015

Sandia biosciences technologies could soon find their way into doctors' offices

Technologies developed in Sandia National Laboratories' biosciences program could soon find their way into doctors' offices -- devices like wearable microneedles that continuously analyze electrolyte levels and a lab-on-a-disk that can test a drop of blood for 64 different diseases in minutes.

20 Mar 2015

96-well glass vial storage plate for UHPLC

Porvair Sciences glass vial storage plate combines 96 borosilicate glass vials of 700µl into a rigid polypropylene carrier microplate to provide a superior product for storage and transportation applications.

19 Mar 2015

Denator's heat-stabilization system preserves lipids at close-to-in vivo-levels

Denator AB announced today that the company’s heat-stabilization system has been demonstrated to preserve lipids at close-to-in vivo-levels. To preserve lipids in a reliable manner prior to mass spectrometry-based analysis is pivotal to accurately quantify and identify potential biomarkers and perform disease research.

19 Mar 2015

Gentronix signs three-year technology access deal with SIMM

UK based Gentronix Limited, the specialist genetic toxicology company, today announced it has signed a three year technology access deal with one of China's most prestigious research intensive institutes, Shanghai Institute Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

18 Mar 2015

New drug-like molecule shows promise in preventing MS progression

Walter and Eliza Hall Institute scientists have developed a new drug-like molecule that can halt inflammation and has shown promise in preventing the progression of multiple sclerosis (MS).

17 Mar 2015

Scientists simplify chemical synthesis of small molecules using 3D printing technology

Howard Hughes Medical Institute scientists have simplified the chemical synthesis of small molecules, eliminating a major bottleneck that limits the exploration of a class of compounds offering tremendous potential for medicine and technology.

13 Mar 2015

ERC project aims to identify new treatments for prostate cancer

The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded a Consolidator Grant to ICREA researcher Xavier Salvatella, head of the Molecular Biophysics Lab at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona).

13 Mar 2015

Ember Therapeutics, Mariel Therapeutics sign definitive merger agreement

Ember Therapeutics, Inc., a Boston-based biotechnology company dedicated to the discovery and development of novel obesity and diabetic related therapies, and Mariel Therapeutics, a privately held, New York-based biotechnology company developing targeted therapies for osteoarthritis and kidney fibrosis using Bone Morphogenetic Protein (BMP)-7, jointly announce today that they have entered into a definitive agreement to merge the two companies.

12 Mar 2015

Brazil's first open-access research facility to be established at UNICAMP

Open-access research into drug discovery has arrived in South America, with a ground-breaking collaboration between leading scientists in North America, Europe and Brazil to provide completely free and open research results to the world.

12 Mar 2015

USF researchers uncover how malaria-related parasites spread at explosive rates

A University of South Florida College of Public Health professor and his team of researchers have become the first to uncover part of the mysterious process by which malaria-related parasites spread at explosive and deadly rates inside humans and other animals.

5 Mar 2015

Malvern launches two new ITC systems to support life science research

Malvern Instruments has launched two new-generation isothermal titration calorimeters (ITC), advancing its recently acquired MicroCal range to further support life science researchers studying biomolecular interactions. The new manual Malvern MicroCal PEAQ-ITC and fully automated Malvern MicroCal PEAQ-ITC Automatedsystems are designed to deliver the enhanced functionality and robust performance now demanded of this essential tool.

3 Mar 2015

Drosophila Research Conference to highlight recent advances in genetics research

Over 1,500 scientists from 30 countries and 46 states will attend next week's 56th Annual Drosophila Research Conference organized by the Genetics Society of America, March 4–8 in Chicago, IL.

28 Feb 2015

Neuroprotective compounds can limit damage to the brain during ischemic stroke

In the 1990s, neuroscientists identified a class of drugs that showed promise in the area of stroke. NMDA receptor antagonists could limit damage to the brain in animal models of stroke. But one problem complicated testing the drugs in a clinical setting: the side effects included disorientation and hallucinations.

28 Feb 2015

Researchers find that new targeted drugs can attack weak spots in cancer cells

Scientists have identified weak spots in cancer cells that could be targeted and attacked by new precision drugs.

25 Feb 2015

Isis Pharmaceuticals announces positive results from Phase 1 study of ISIS-PKK Rx for HAE treatment

Isis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced today positive results from a Phase 1 study with ISIS-PKKRx. In this study, healthy volunteers treated with ISIS-PKKRx achieved dose-dependent reductions of up to 95 percent in prekallikrein, or PKK. ISIS-PKKRx is a RNA-targeted antisense drug designed to inhibit the production of PKK for the prophylactic treatment of hereditary angioedema (HAE).

24 Feb 2015