Drug Discovery News and Research

RSS

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.

Pharma IQ to launch Compound Management and Integrity Online event

Pharma IQ is pioneering new compound management discussion platform with launch of the first ever compound management event - Compound Management and Integrity Online event, which will take an innovative form of 11 online session over the course of 5 weeks, beginning 31st of October 2011.

11 Aug 2011

Can a robot cure cancer?

The Lowy Cancer Research Centre at the University of New South Wales is hosting a select group of high school students and a pair of potentially cancer-curing robots tomorrow ( Friday 12th August) as a curtain raiser for National Science Week, with lab tours led by world-class scientists from Children’s Cancer Institute Australia (CCIA).

10 Aug 2011

Pfizer, UC San Diego sign research agreement to drive innovation in drug discovery

In an innovative collaboration designed to speed the process of drug discovery, Pfizer, Inc. and the University of California, San Diego Health Sciences announced today that UC San Diego has joined the ranks of other top-tier life science research institutions across the country as part of Pfizer's Centers for Therapeutic Innovation.

9 Aug 2011

AMRI second quarter total revenue increases 9% to $53.9 million

AMRI today reported financial and operating results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2011.

8 Aug 2011

Idera second quarter net loss increases to $6.3 million

Idera Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today reported financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2011. Idera is a biotechnology company engaged in the discovery and development of DNA- and RNA-based drug candidates targeted to Toll-Like receptors (TLRs).

5 Aug 2011

World RNA Interference market will be worth $4 billion by 2017: New report

By 2017, the world RNA Interference market will be worth $4 billion, according to a new report available from companiesandmarkets.com.

5 Aug 2011

Virginia Tech student receives prestigious award for cellular signaling receptor study linked to diabetes, obesity

Stephanie Nicole "Nikki" Lewis, a graduate student in the interdisciplinary doctoral program in genetics, bioinformatics, and computational biology at Virginia Tech, has been awarded the prestigious Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award for Predoctoral Research through the National Institutes of Health for her study of a cellular signaling receptor that is associated with chronic inflammatory diseases such as diabetes, obesity, and inflammatory bowel disease.

5 Aug 2011

RNAi screen identifies Brd4 as a therapeutic target for acute myeloid leukemia

Scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) and five other institutions have used an unconventional approach to cancer drug discovery to identify a new potential treatment for acute myeloid leukemia.

4 Aug 2011

Zalicus second quarter revenue decreases to $1.8 million

Zalicus Inc. today reported financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2011.

3 Aug 2011

New approach to overcome complexities of developing more effective drugs for treating diseases

Pharmaceutical scientists typically face a meager five percent success rate for anti-cancer drugs in clinical trials. To help improve this success rate, Japanese scientists, led by Dr. Tetsuya Terasaki, one of the top pharmaceutical scientists focused on drug transporters, have developed a new approach designed to overcome complexities of developing new, more effective drugs to treat diseases, including cancer.

3 Aug 2011

Scientist discovers novel way to convert human skin cells into neurons

A scientist at the Gladstone Institutes has discovered a novel way to convert human skin cells into brain cells, advancing medicine and human health by offering new hope for regenerative medicine and personalized drug discovery and development.

29 Jul 2011

Selexis, CSL enter commercial license agreement for therapeutic antibody

Selexis SA, a global life science company with technologies for drug discovery, cell line development and scale-up to manufacturing of therapeutic proteins announced today that CSL Limited has entered a commercial license agreement with Selexis for the preclinical development of a therapeutic antibody anticipated to enter Phase I clinical trials in 2012.

26 Jul 2011

Sigma Life Science releases breast cancer-specific knockout and knockin cell lines for drug research

Sigma Life Science, the innovative biological products and services research business of Sigma-Aldrich, today announced the expansion of its CompoZr® Oncology Disease Model portfolio with the release of the first in its collection of breast cancer-specific knockout and knockin cell lines for drug discovery and research.

22 Jul 2011

A*STAR's ETC, Agilent introduce drug screening platform

Agilent Technologies Inc. and A*STAR's Experimental Therapeutics Centre (ETC) today announced the launch of a drug screening platform within ETC's new Singapore Screening Centre.

22 Jul 2011

Common cancer drug alleviates symptoms associated with schizophrenia

Researchers have revealed the molecular pathway that is affected during the onset of schizophrenia and successfully alleviated symptoms of the illness in mice, using a commonly used cancer drug.

21 Jul 2011

SuperGen closes acquisition of Astex

SuperGen, Inc., a pharmaceutical company dedicated to the discovery and development of novel cancer therapies, announced it has closed the transaction to acquire Astex Therapeutics Limited, a privately held, UK-based biotechnology company developing targeted therapies.

21 Jul 2011

USPTO issues patent for Avila's targeted covalent drugs portfolio

Avila Therapeutics, Inc., a biotechnology company developing targeted covalent drugs that treat diseases through protein silencing, announced today that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has issued Patent No. 7,982,036, "4,6-Disubstituted Pyrimidines Useful as Kinase Inhibitors."

21 Jul 2011

A*Star Institute of Microelectronics shortens drug development cycle with new silicon-based screening tool

Researchers from A*STAR Institute of Microelectronics (IME) have developed a lateral silicon-based drug screening tool that has demonstrated simultaneous capture of 12 individual cells – 12 times higher throughput than conventional patch clamping. The device can be scaled up to allow 1536 cell-recordings simultaneously, permitting 16 times higher throughput than existing planar patch clamp approach.

19 Jul 2011

IMD, BioFocus enter marketing collaboration to offer enhanced natural product discovery

BioFocus, an integrated drug discovery service partner, and InterMed Discovery GmbH (IMD), a natural product lead-discovery company, today announced a marketing collaboration to offer enhanced natural product discovery to the pharmaceutical, animal health, and agrochemical industries. No financial details were disclosed.

19 Jul 2011

Anti-malaria drug provides key insight into potential treatments for autoimmune diseases

In a study published recently in the journal Science Signaling Van Andel Research Institute (VARI) scientists demonstrate on the molecular level how the anti-malaria drug chloroquine represses inflammation, which may provide a blueprint for new strategies for treating inflammation and a multitude of autoimmune diseases such as arthritis, multiple sclerosis, and certain cancers.

19 Jul 2011