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.

Faster detection of viruses with nanodevices

A more specific and faster detection of viruses has been identified in new research by Trinity College Dublin's Professor of Physics, Martin Hegner at Trinity College's Centre of Research on Adaptive Nanostructures and Nanodevices (CRANN) and an international team of researchers.

17 Feb 2009

First immune danger receptor' found

Cancer Research UK scientists have found the first biological receptor that alerts the immune system to 'dangerous' or abnormal cell death, according to research published in Nature.

16 Feb 2009

Sundia MediTech and Xcovery announce new drug discovery

Sundia MediTech, a CRO company based in Shanghai, China and Xcovery, a company based in Florida, U.S.A. jointly announced their 2 year collaborative success in new drug discovery at IBC's BioProcess International Conference yesterday in San Diego, USA.

10 Feb 2009

Idenix Pharmaceuticals and GSK sign agreement for novel NNRTI for treatment of HIV

Idenix Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) today announced the execution of a license agreement granting GSK exclusive worldwide rights to IDX899.

8 Feb 2009

New findings raise questions about process used to identify experimental drug

A study by National Institutes of Health (NIH) researchers has revealed surprising new insights into the process used to initially identify an experimental drug now being tested in people with cystic fibrosis and muscular dystrophy.

3 Feb 2009

Major malaria breakthrough

A team of Monash University researchers led by Professor James Whisstock has made a major breakthrough in the international fight against malaria, which claims the life of a child across the world every 30 seconds.

3 Feb 2009

Robot scientist promises to dig up new drugs

A robot scientist that can make informed guesses about how effective different chemical compounds will be at fighting different diseases could revolutionise the pharmaceutical industry by developing more effective treatments more cheaply and quickly than current methods.

3 Feb 2009

Cell-building discovery offers great potential for basic cell biology, drug and tissue research

Brown University biomedical engineers can now grow and assemble living microtissues into complex three-dimensional structures in a way that will advance the field of tissue engineering and may eventually reduce the need for certain kinds of animal research.

2 Feb 2009

MRSA's weak point visualised by scientists

An enzyme that lives in Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and helps the dangerous bacterium to grow and spread infection through the human body has been visualised for the first time, according to a study out today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

19 Jan 2009

Discovery of new protein that triggers breast cancer

Canadian researchers have identified a new protein in the progression of breast cancer.

15 Jan 2009

Researchers solve structure of key Ebola protein

Research led by Iowa State University scientists has them a step closer to finding a way to counter the Ebola virus.

12 Jan 2009

FORMA Therapeutics to collaborate with Novartis on inhibitors

FORMA Therapeutics has announced that it has entered into a license and option agreement through the Novartis Option Fund.

12 Jan 2009

Scientists find new way to 'track' response to cancer drugs

Scientists have found a new way of accurately measuring the success of experimental cancer drugs, according to a study published in Cancer Research.

6 Jan 2009

Bionovo publishes discoveries in predictable tissue selectivity for selective estrogen receptor modulators platform

Bionovo, Inc. has announced results describing predictable estrogen regulatory elements that can be used to identify estrogenic drugs that are safer.

5 Jan 2009

New technique for creating authentic embryonic stem cells from rats

Stem Cell Sciences plc has announced that pioneering research describing a technique for creating authentic embryonic stem (ES) cells from rats has been published in the prestigious peer-reviewed journal, Cell.

30 Dec 2008

VistaGen, WARF sign license agreement for human embryonic stem cell technology

VistaGen Therapeutics and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) have signed a license for human embryonic stem cell patents for the development and commercialization of stem cell-based research tools.

18 Dec 2008

Researchers hunt for new drugs for Leishmaniasis

Hundreds of millions of people, mainly in developing countries, are disabled by infectious diseases, according to the World Health Organization.

16 Dec 2008

Paliperidone palmitate shows positive results for treatment of schizophrenia

Paliperidone palmitate, an investigational long-acting therapy (LAT) demonstrated statistically significant symptom control compared with placebo according to the results of a 13-week study.

14 Dec 2008

When less is more: Brief inhibition of cancer target is effective and less toxic

New research shows that the delicate balance between maximum clinical impact and toxicity may not be quite as fragile as scientists had previously believed.

8 Dec 2008

More evidence on why the Mediterranean diet is good for heart

Researchers have discovered one potential mechanism by which briefly cutting off, then restoring, blood flow to arteries prior to a heart attack lessens the damage caused, according to a study published today in the journal Cardiovascular Research.

2 Dec 2008