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Article 2: Direct detection of microorganisms using viability-based technologies

19 April 2011 | By Michael J. Miller, President, Microbiology Consultants, LLC

This is the second in a series of articles on rapid microbiological methods that will appear in European Pharmaceutical Review during 2011. In my last article, I provided an overview of growth-based rapid microbiological methods (RMMs). This was a good place to start my review of RMM technologies, as most…

Proteomics and target identification in oncology

16 February 2011 | By Hubert Hondermarck, Professor and head of U908 INSERM research unit – Growth factor signalling in breast cancer – functional proteomics, University of Lille

The recent progresses in the field of proteomics now enable large scale, high throughput, sensitive and quantitative protein analysis. Therefore, applying proteomics in clinical oncology becomes realistic. From the analysis of cell cultures to biological fluids and tumour biopsies, proteomic investigations of cancers are flourishing and new candidate biomarkers and…

Advancing high content analysis towards improving clinical efficacy

16 February 2011 | By Neil Carragher, Edinburgh Cancer Research UK Centre, Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine, University of Edinburgh

High-content analysis is primed to play a prominent role in a new era of drug discovery research that places greater emphasis on clinical translation at all stages of the discovery process from target identification to proof-of-concept testing. High content analysis provides a technical bridge between reductionist targetdirected drug discovery approaches…

Pharmaceutical materials science and disorder: The next steps

16 February 2011 | By John Murphy, Senior Scientist, Materials Science, Pfizer

Over the past decade, the pursuit of materials science within the pharmaceutical industry has largely focused on determining the crystal structure of our drug molecules and ensuring that the most stable polymorphic form is carried forward and maintained through development, as the manufacturing issues and regulatory impact arising from the…

Establishing assays and small molecule screening facilities for Drug discovery programs

16 February 2011 | By Sheraz Gul, Vice President & Head of Biology, European ScreeningPort GmbH

Although many of the marketed small molecule drugs have been discovered by research and development efforts within the pharmaceutical industry, there has been a paradigm shift with external sources increasingly being relied upon to fill their pipelines. This trend is likely to increase and the key pre-clinical activities carried out…

Translational science: The future of medicine

16 February 2011 | By Bahija Jallal, Executive Vice President, Research & Development, MedImmune

When the term ‘translational medicine’ first came to prominence at the turn of the century, there were suspicions that this concept was simply a rebranding of conventional medical research, describing the process in which scientific discovery at the laboratory bench eventually translates to an effective therapy at the patient’s bedside.…

Pulmonary inhalation aerosols for targeted antibiotics drug delivery

16 February 2011 | By Chun-Woong Park & Heidi M. Mansour, University of Kentucky, College of Pharmacy and Don Hayes Jr, University of Kentucky, College of Medicine

Targeted pulmonary drug delivery of antibiotics by inhalation aerosols can play significant roles in the treatment of cystic fibrosis (CF), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and in other pulmonary diseases where chronic airway infections exist. Direct administration to the lung as targeted pulmonary inhalation aerosol delivery is uniquely able to…

Article 1 Rapid microbiological methods 2011

16 February 2011 | By Michael J. Miller, President, Microbiology Consultants, LLC

This is the first in a series of articles on rapid microbiological methods that will appear in European Pharmaceutical Review during 2011. Last year, I provided an overview of rapid microbiological methods (RMMs), including validation strategies, regulatory expectations, the technical and quality benefits of RMMs as compared with conventional techniques,…

Next Generation Sequencing: Current realities in cancer biology

16 February 2011 | By Ross Sibson, Director of Research, Applied Cancer Biology Group, University of Liverpool

The rate of progress in molecular cell biological sciences has become dramatic. This is fuelled in part by developments in technology, none more so than in the field of nucleic acid sequencing. So-called Next Generation Sequencing Platforms promise to revolutionise our understanding of the importance of genetic differences on an…

Authentication of medicines using Raman spectroscopy

16 February 2011 | By Sulaf Assi, University of Hertfordshire, and Robert Watt & Tony Moffat, The School of Pharmacy, University of London

Raman spectroscopy offers a rapid and non-destructive technique for the identification of counterfeit medicines. Handheld Raman instruments offer the advantages of carrying the laboratory to the sample and giving a rapid pass or fail answer for the medicine inspected. It can identify a medicine regardless of its physical form as…

Evaluation of cellular response to nicotinic compounds using optical label-free technology

16 February 2011 | By Isabel Coma & Julio J. Martin, Screening and Compound Profiling, GlaxoSmithKline R&D Pharmaceuticals

Cell signalling circuits are likely to have a key role in the future of pharmacological discovery and medical treatment. There is consensus about the importance of understanding cell components and their function, not at the level of genes, but at a higher level of abstraction, involving their pathways and circuits.…

PCR and personalised cancer medicine

16 December 2010 | By Frank McCaughan, MRC Career Development Fellow, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology

The delivery of personalised medicine is a key goal of modern cancer medicine and refers to the tailoring of anticancer therapy to the molecular characteristics of an individual tumour. To facilitate personalised medicine, it is important to have robust and reproducible means of gaining molecular information about a patient’s cancer…

RNAi screens for the identification and validation of novel targets: Current status and challenges

16 December 2010 | By Attila A. Seyhan, Translational Immunology, Inflammation and Immunology, Pfizer Pharmaceuticals

Recent advances in RNA interference (RNAi) technology and availability of RNAi libraries in various formats and genome coverage have impacted the direction and speed of drug target discovery and validation efforts. After the introduction of RNAi inducing reaagent libraries in various formats, systematic functional genome screens have been performed to…

The implementation of rapid microbiological methods

16 December 2010 | By

This is the sixth and final paper in a series of articles on rapid microbiological methods that have appeared in European Pharmaceutical Review during 2010. Over the past year, we have explored the world of rapid microbiological methods (RMMs), focusing on validation strategies, regulatory expectations, and the technical and quality…

PharmaChemical Ireland launch innovation and excellence strategy in New York

16 December 2010 | By Matt Moran, Director, PharmaChemical Ireland

PharmaChemical Ireland published a major strategy document in March 2010. The document, titled, ‘Innovation and Excellence-PharmaChemical Ireland Strategic Plan’ was launched at the Drug Chemical and Allied Technologies (DCAT) meeting at the Waldorf Astoria, New York City on 16 March 2010. The document outlines the industry response to the major…