Analytical techniques

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Applying systems biology and computer simulations to predicting idiosyncratic DILI

19 August 2010 | By David Cook, Associate Director, Global Safety Assessment, AstraZeneca

Idiosyncratic drug-induced liver injury (DILI) is a rare adverse drug reaction which accounts for a significant amount of patient suffering, including death. Currently, idiosyncratic DILI is unpredictable and as a result arises late in the drug development process or even post-marketing. The prediction of idiosyncratic DILI based on preclinical or…

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Pharma ‘HTS’ the Mark with Screening

21 July 2010 | By NG Online News

Back in May, it was announced that new stem cell research would reduce the need for animal testing...

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High content cell based primary screening for oncology targets – a perspective

25 June 2010 | By Peter Alcock, Colin Bath, Carolyn Blackett & Peter B. Simpson, Screening & Assay Sciences, Cancer Bioscience, AstraZeneca Alderley Park

Over the last 15 years, vendors have offered microscope-based instruments capable of producing images of fluorescent labelled components of cells grown in microtitre plates. These instruments are typically bundled with analysis software capable of defining the relative distribution of several fluorescent markers on a cell by cell basis1,2. As the…

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Article 3: The implementation of rapid microbiological methods

24 June 2010 | By Michael J. Miller, Ph.D., President, Microbiology Consultants, LLC

This is the third in a series of articles on rapid microbiological methods that will appear in European Pharmaceutical Review during 2010. Rapid microbiological methods (RMMs) have been implemented by a number of companies around the world. In some cases, it is necessary to work with regulatory authorities in order…

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Trends in laboratory automation: From speed and simplicity to flexibility and information content

24 June 2010 | By Fernando A. Ramon Olayo, Manager, GlaxoSmithKline

The pharmaceutical industry has significantly influenced laboratory automation trends in the past two decades. The need to screen large collections of chemical entities in a short time with minimised consumption of reagents has driven a strong demand of parallelisation, automation, simplification and miniaturisation solutions from the suppliers of instruments, labware…

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Raman spectroscopy for the analysis of drug products and drug manufacturing processes

9 May 2010 | By Prof. Thomas De Beer, Assistant-Professor, Process Analytical Technology, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Ghent

This article aims at supplying a concise overview on the application of Raman spectroscopic analysis methods within the pharmaceutical drug product manufacturing world. Firstly, there will be a focus on the rapid and nondestructive off-line analysis feasibility of Raman spectroscopy for final drug products. Herewith, several possible sources of error…

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Implementation of appropriate assays and HTS technologies in drug discovery

9 May 2010 | By Sheraz Gul, Vice President, European ScreeningPort GmbH

In this article, an overview regarding advances in assay formats for specific target classes and options that should be considered when considering hardware will be given. There has been a significant growth in the assay and automation technologies that are available for compound screening activities and it is essential to…

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‘Pharmaceutical Industry / University’ R&D collaboration on Process Analytical Technologies

9 May 2010 | By Professor Nicolas Abatzoglou, Chair, PAT in Pharmaceutical Engineering, Department of Chemical and Biotechnological Engineering, Université de Sherbrooke

Process analytical technologies (PAT) are mature and well advanced in the classical chemical industry. Many successful industry/university R&D collaborations are aimed at the development of analytical methods and their application in process control. However, PAT in the pharmaceutical industry is a rather new field. It is precisely this latter reality…

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The changing landscape of automation in pre-clinical drug discovery

22 February 2010 | By

Over the past decade we have seen a significant realignment of activities associated with drug discovery and this will continue for a multitude of reasons. Within the pharmaceutical industry we have seen significant changes e.g. a decrease in the numbers of drugs that are being approved by the regulatory authorities…

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Contributing to the Sustainability of the UK Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals Industries

22 February 2010 | By

The Centre for Process Analytics and Control Technology (CPACT) is a unique industry-driven multi-disciplinary research and development club that was formed in 1997 by the Departments of Pure and Applied Chemistry at the University of Strathclyde, the Department of Chemical and Process Engineering at the University of Newcastle and the…

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Segregation of molecular mechanisms of genotoxicity and carcinogenicity across human, yeast and Salmonella species

22 February 2010 | By

Screening assays for in vitro toxicity are the way to reduce the attrition rates in the preclinical development of new drugs. Here a test battery is presented for screening of genotoxic and carcinogenic compounds by means of VitotoxTM, RadarScreen, and four human liver HepG2 cell lines with two different promoters…

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Cancer biology where do we go next?

22 February 2010 | By

The World Cancer Report (2008) predicts a 50% worldwide increase in cancer incidence by 2030, predicting 75 million people living within a five year diagnosis of cancer1. This increase is partially fuelled by significant medical advances in developed countries ensuring people live longer. However, it is also attributable to developing…

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Process Analytical Technology (PAT) in Freeze Drying: Tunable Diode Laser Absorption Spectroscopy as an evolving tool for Cycle Monitoring

12 December 2009 | By Stefan Schneid, Division of Pharmaceutics, Freeze Drying Focus Group, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg and Dr. Henning Gieseler, Division of Pharmaceutics, Freeze Drying Focus Group, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg

The most important critical product parameter during a freeze-drying process is the product temperature at the ice sublimation interface, Tp1. Once the product temperature in this area of interest exceeds the critical formulation temperature (typically denoted as "collapse temperature", Tc) during primary drying, a stepwise loss of the cake structure…

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Basics of image analysis in High Content Screening

12 December 2009 | By

Automated high content screening platforms are capable of producing thousands of images per day. The challenge is to use appropriate analysis methods to extract the maximum amount of biologically-relevant information from these images. In this article we summarise the basic concepts of image analysis and highlight examples of both open-source…

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The Original HCA Event

12 December 2009 | By

Coverage Includes: Compound/siRNA Screening - Pathway Analysis - Data Management - Image Analysis - HCA for Stem Cells - Live-Cell Imaging - Flow Cytometry - Neuronal Screening - New Biological Models for HCA - Novel Probes and Biosensors