Issue 6 2006

Challenges in High-Content siRNA Screening

Issue 6 2006 / 28 November 2006 / Dr. Eberhard Krausz, HT-Technology Development Studio (TDS), Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG)

Huge progress has been made, both in RNA interference technology applied to mammalian cells and in automated microscopy to analyse gene functions upon silencing in the cellular context. Large-scale siRNA screens have been published recently, mainly applying assays that gain multi-parametric information on biological processes. It is a long way to establish an infrastructure that allows high-content siRNA screening, and in this article the major challenges are summarised.

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Tagged with: Eberhard Krausz, Functional genomics, Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics

HUPO drives the creation of protein test standards

Issue 6 2006 / 28 November 2006 / John R. Yates, III, Department of Cell Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, Thierry Rabilloud, DBMS/BMCC, Alexander W. Bell, Montreal Proteomics Centre, McGill University and John J. M. Bergeron, Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, McGill University, Quebec

Over the last ten years the Proteomics field has been a technologically dynamic area. New methods and techniques help drive the field to achieve more sophisticated measurements that yield increasingly larger volumes of data and information. This creates several problems.

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Tagged with: Alexander W. Bell, John J. M. Bergeron, John R. Yates, McGill University, Proteomics, The Scripps Research Institute, Thierry Rabilloud

Industry Insight: The measure of success

Issue 6 2006 / 28 November 2006 / EPR

“Getting to results faster and with higher data quality are challenges for major techniques, especially separation techniques such as LC and LC/MS.” explains Jaquemar. “Equally, solutions for secure information management are rapidly gaining in importance.”

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Tagged with: Industry Insight, Markus Jaquemar

Designing a program for early CNS development

Issue 6 2006 / 28 November 2006 / Irina Antonijevic, Douglas Craig and Christophe Gerald, Lundbeck Research USA, Inc.

Only a few innovations have been made in recent decades with regard to psychiatric, and particularly antidepressant, drugs (Insel et al., 2006) (Figure 1). This conundrum reflects, at least partly, the lack of understanding of the disease biology. This poses a challenge not only to inventive drug development, but also to clinical practice, which faces remission rates of 30 per cent and less in patients given state-of-the-art pharmacological treatment for major depressive disorders (Trivedi et al., 2006). The situation is further aggravated by the exclusive current use of clinically based diagnostic criteria for major depression, which some critics view as ‘a pseudo-category, effectively homogenizing multiple expressions of depression’ (Parker, 2004).

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Tagged with: Biomarkers, Christophe Gerald, Douglas Craig, Irina Antonijevic, Lundbeck Research USA

Pursuing hot targets in drug discovery

Issue 6 2006 / 28 November 2006 / Colleen B. Jonsson, Program Leader, Emerging Infectious Diseases Research, Southern Research Institute

Over the past few decades we have experienced a dramatic increase in the rate of emergence and re-emergence of infectious diseases1,2. Many of these diseases, such as SARS, resulted in fewer than 1,000 deaths, but caused an estimated 2 per cent decline gross domestic product in East Asia. The economic impact of a pandemic influenza outbreak could result in the loss of millions of lives and cost an estimated 900 billion (US).

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Tagged with: Colleen B. Jonsson, HTS (High Throughput Screening), Southern Research Institute

A roadmap for development

Issue 6 2006 / 28 November 2006 / EPR

Lab Automation Roundtable

Panelists:

• Dr Ulrich Schopfer, Global Head of Compound Management, Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research
• Dr Gordon Alton, Department of Biochemistry, Pfizer Global Research & Development
• Kjell Fransson, Project Leader Automation, Astrazeneca R&D
• Thomas Keller, Head of UK Applied Technology, GlaxoSmithKline R&D

Laboratory automation in pharmaceutical research is an established technology, but what does the future hold for its role in R&D? European Pharmaceutical Review asked four industry experts for their views, and you can read what they had to say in this virtual round table discussion.

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Tagged with: Gordon Alton, Kjell Fransson, Lab Automation, Thomas Keller, Ulrich Schopfer

Is the dream becoming reality?

Issue 6 2006 / 28 November 2006 / Andy Chang and Jean-Philippe Stephan Ph.D., Assay and Automation Technology department, Genentech, Inc

During the last decade, technical developments have dramatically changed the way cell-based assays could be implemented and used in research and development organisations. Although cell-based assays have moved into a modern era, cells are still grown and maintained in the same way as decades ago; i.e. manually. However, automation systems with the ability to grow and maintain cells have emerged, bringing us closer to the dream of fully automated cell culture.

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Tagged with: Andy Chang, Cell culture automation, Genentech Inc, Jean-Philippe Stephan

Polyphasic approach to microbial identification

Issue 6 2006 / 28 November 2006 / Hans-Joachim Anders, Marion Keller, Manfred Berchtold and Werner Hecker, Novartis Pharma Stein AG, Biological and Microbiological Services, Switzerland

The identification of microorganisms from the pharmaceutical production environment has gained an ever greater importance in modern times. Thus the new Aseptic Processing Guide of the FDA recommends the identification of detected isolates from the critical clean room area (grade A or ISO 5) down to the species level and recommends the identification of isolates from the surrounding lesser controlled clean room area (i.e. grade B or ISO 7) down to at least the genus level.

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Tagged with: Hans-Joachim Anders, Manfred Berchtold, Marion Keller, Novartis Pharma Stein AG, Werner Hecker

Committee E55 – an update

Issue 6 2006 / 28 November 2006 / Pat Picariello, Director of Developmental Operations, ASTM International

Since its creation in December 2003, ASTM International Committee E55 on Manufacture of Pharmaceutical Products has grown in size as well as global relevance. Recent liaison relationships have been established with the ISPE and the European Compliance Academy (ECA) regarding their internal distribution of E55 draft standards for the purpose of gathering member feedback and, in September 2006, several E55 officers addressed the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) with the goal of creating a similar relationship.

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Tagged with: ASTM International, Pat Picariello