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.

Scripps Research Institute enters agreement with Aileron Therapeutics

The Scripps Research Institute and Aileron Therapeutics today announced that they have entered into an agreement that will add Scripps Research's "Click" chemistry to Aileron's proprietary stabilized peptide and protein technology platforms, which includes the Stapled Peptide technology.

1 Dec 2010

Anacor, UCSF and NYBC collaborate to discover drug therapies for river blindness

Anacor Pharmaceuticals, the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) Sandler Center and the Lindsley F. Kimball Research Institute (LFKRI) of the New York Blood Center (NYBC) today announced the establishment of a research and development collaboration to discover new drug therapies for the treatment of river blindness (onchocerciasis), a parasitic disease that is the second leading cause of infectious blindness worldwide, and is most prevalent in Africa.

1 Dec 2010

USC purchases WaferGen SmartChip system for Molecular Pathways and Drug Discovery center

WaferGen Biosystems, Inc., a leading developer of state-of-the-art genomic analysis systems, today announced that the University of Southern California (USC) has purchased the WaferGen SmartChip system for its USC Center for Molecular Pathways and Drug Discovery to discover and validate biomarkers for pancreatic and colorectal cancer applications to expedite the development of a cancer therapy. USC purchased a solution that includes the SmartChip platform and validated gene panels for biomarker profiling.

1 Dec 2010

New brain imaging technique can trace effects of SYN115 drug in Parkinson's disease

Neuroscientists using a new brain imaging technique could see an investigational drug for Parkinson's disease get into a patient's brain and affect blood flow in several key structures, an indicator the drug may be effective.

1 Dec 2010

NIA awards Aphios Phase I Fast Track SBIR grant for development of novel AD nanodrug

Aphios® Corporation today announced that it was awarded Phase I of a Fast Track SBIR grant from the National Institute of Aging (NIA), National Institutes of Health (NIH) for Developing a Novel Alzheimer's Disease Nanodrug.

30 Nov 2010

First-ever selective irreversible inhibition of viral protease using targeted covalent drug

Avila Therapeutics, Inc., a biotechnology company developing novel targeted covalent drugs, has published research in Nature Chemical Biology demonstrating the first-ever selective irreversible inhibition of a viral protease using a targeted covalent drug.

30 Nov 2010

Quintiles, London Genetics enter strategic alliance to offer pharmacogenetics solutions for personalized medicine

Quintiles, the world's leading biopharmaceutical services company, and London Genetics, an expert in the use of pharmacogenetics in drug discovery and development, today announced a strategic alliance to offer the biopharmaceutical industry innovative pharmacogenetics solutions to advance personalized medicine. Financial terms were not disclosed.

30 Nov 2010

New 'canSAR' cancer drug discovery database launched

A powerful new cancer drug discovery database has been launched to speed up the process of bringing drugs from 'bench to bedside'.

29 Nov 2010

Marcus evans Summit highlights potential growth, innovation in drug discovery

Drug discovery scientists need to broaden their approaches to pharmaceutical research and development (R&D) and Medicinal Chemistry, to take advantage of untapped opportunities, says Torsten Hoffmann, Head Discovery Chemistry at F. Hoffmann La Roche, Basel, Switzerland. Chemical Biology allows room for innovation, but is often overlooked by scientists in the industry.

29 Nov 2010

Selcia announces drug discovery collaboration agreement with Gilead Sciences

Selcia Limited, a leading contract research organisation, today announced a drug discovery collaboration agreement with Gilead Sciences, Inc. (Foster City, California).

29 Nov 2010

Thomson Reuters announces acquisition of GeneGo

Thomson Reuters today announced that it has acquired GeneGo, a leading provider of biology and disease information, analytics, and decision support solutions for pharmaceutical research and development.

29 Nov 2010

New irreversible covalent approach to inhibit viral protease

28 Nov 2010

CQDM and Alsace BioValley enter long term research collaboration

Alsace BioValley, a French competitive health cluster dedicated to therapeutic innovation and CQDM (Québec Consortium for Drug Discovery) sign in Paris today an agreement on a bilateral partnership for the benefit of Alsatian and Quebec research centers and industries in the life sciences and health sector.

26 Nov 2010

RCSI review highlights development in drug discovery field

A research review carried out by the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) and published in 'Nature Reviews and Drug Discovery' (October 2010) has highlighted the lessons, opportunities and recent developments in the area of drug development for cardiovascular disease, auto-immune disorders and multiple sclerosis.

25 Nov 2010

Amorfix introduces high affinity antibodies against cancer primary cells

Amorfix Life Sciences, a product development company focused on diagnostics and therapeutics for misfolded protein diseases, today announced that together with its partner Epitomics, high affinity antibodies to prion protein disease specific epitopes (DSEs) have been produced, which bind preferentially to several cancer primary cells and tumor cell lines, but not normal cells.

24 Nov 2010

Evotec to collaborate with Merck on neurological disease drug discovery program

Evotec AG today announced that it has signed within the "NEU²-Consortium" framework and partially funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Bundesministerium fuer Bildung und Forschung - BMBF), an agreement with Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, to develop pre-clinical candidates for an undisclosed neurological disease. Evotec will provide drug discovery expertise covering in vitro biology, medicinal chemistry and in vitro and in vivo pharmacology.

23 Nov 2010

Convergence enters drug discovery collaboration with Selcia for chronic pain treatment

Convergence Pharmaceuticals Limited, the new company focused on the development of novel and high value analgesic medicines, and Selcia Limited, a contract research organisation, today are pleased to announce that they have entered into a drug discovery collaboration to identify and develop high quality candidate molecules for the treatment of chronic pain.

22 Nov 2010

AVEO's RON antibody shows anti-tumor activity in human cancer xenografts

AVEO Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing and commercializing cancer therapeutics, today announced preclinical data from AVEO's anti-RON antibody program which demonstrated the successful identification of antibodies with potent anti-tumor activity that demonstrated inhibition of the function of both wild type RON and the RONΔ160 variant, as well as a potential biomarker to identify tumors likely to respond to treatment with the anti-RON antibody.

19 Nov 2010

Scientists solve receptor structure that responds to neurotransmitter dopamine

A team led by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute has solved the structure of one of the receptors that responds to the neurotransmitter dopamine. Although dopamine transmission is essential to normal brain functioning, the biological assembly of the molecules involved in this crucial neuronal interplay had not been known until now.

19 Nov 2010

Scientists solve structure of key protein from Lassa virus

Scientists at Emory University and the University of St. Andrews have solved the structure of a key protein from Lassa virus, which is endemic to West Africa and can cause a deadly hemorrhagic fever.

18 Nov 2010