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24 March 2006 | By Steven A. Haney, Department of Biological Technologies, Wyeth Research
Large and small drug development companies have used RNAi intensively for several years now1-3. The adoption of RNAi technologies by drug companies followed fairly closely with their adoption by academic research labs, and as such many of the challenges and problems that were a natural consequence of the rapid expansion…
24 March 2006 | By Michaela Kroeger, Merck KGaA, Institute of Toxicology, Matthias Glückmann, Applied Biosystems, Mass Spectrometry and Proteomics
To date, hazard/risk assessment of new drugs and chemicals primarily relies on the investigation of toxicological endpoints from animal studies. In this field, the full range of genomics and proteomics technologies can be used in efforts to uncover the molecular mechanisms at work in response to xenobiotic exposure. These new…
24 March 2006 | By Lut Overbergh and Chantal Mathieu, Laboratory for Experimental Medicine and Endocrinology (LEGENDO), University Hospital Gasthuisberg, Catholic University of Leuven
The real-time PCR technique is one of the emerging techniques that, although only described for the first time about a decade ago, have become the method of choice for quantification of DNA and RNA levels in cells, tissues and tissue biopsies.
24 March 2006 | By Maria L. Garcia and Gregory J. Kaczorowski,Department of Ion Channels, Merck Research Laboratories
The extensive amount of knowledge accumulated over the last few years on the physiological importance of ion channels and, consequently, the broad expectation that drugs which modify the activity of these proteins could have therapeutic benefit, has triggered resurgence in the study of ion channels in both academic and pharmaceutical…
24 March 2006 | By Charanya Ramachandran, Research Analyst, Drug Discovery Technologies, Frost & Sullivan Healthcare (EMEA)
Molecular technologies such as genomics and proteomics have brought in a thorough make-over to early stage drug discovery. The strategic spotlight from the genomics technologies has gradually shifted focus to the cellular domain where the entire drug target interaction takes place. As a result, cell based screening provides promising potential…
24 March 2006 | By EPR
Marc Casper, Senior Vice President, Thermo Electron Corp., believes there are exciting times ahead for R&D and that collaborations will speed the development of the tools required. Tim Lloyd found out more.
24 March 2006 | By Cees Gooijer, Freek Ariese and Reyer J. Dijkstra, Dept. of Analytical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy, Laser Centre Vrije Universiteit
Currently, Raman spectroscopy (RS) is rapidly becoming a mature analytical technique in the pharmaceutical world. Thus far, it is used almost exclusively in a stand-alone mode, since coupling with liquid separation methods hardly seemed realistic in practice. However, as outlined in this article, recent developments are quite promising and such…
24 March 2006 | By Dr. Manuela Scholz, Leiter der Herstellung (Product Supply Release Responsible), Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals
Due to the need for improvement in the cost structure and efficiency of the pharmaceutical industry, the introduction of NIR analytical techniques in combination with PAT applications is a promising opportunity for cycle time reduction and machine utilisation increase.
24 March 2006 | By E J MacLean, P J Rizkallah, CCLRC Daresbury Laboratory and J R Helliwell, School of Chemistry, The University of Manchester
Synchrotron radiation (SR) has had a profound impact on the capabilities of structural chemistry and biology. The first dedicated SR X-ray source was the UK’s SRS, which celebrated its 25th Anniversary in 2005. This article provides an overview and several case studies that illustrate the pivotal role that the pharmaceutical…
24 March 2006 | By Charles A. Lucy and Sarah Pelletier, Department of Chemistry, University of Alberta
Ion chromatography (IC) allows the determination of trace ions using low capacity high efficiency columns possessing fixed ion exchange sites. Combined with suppressed conductivity detection, IC yields parts-per-billion detection of the seven common inorganic anions (F-, Cl-, NO2-, Br-, NO3-, HPO42- and SO42-) and to a lesser extent carboxylic acids,…
24 March 2006 | By E. Allen, T. Mant, C. Vose: Guy’s Drug Research Unit, Quintiles Limited
Drug development has become more complex and significantly more expensive. There has been an estimated 55% increase in the critical path development costs since the year 20001. More than 50% of these costs are incurred in later phase development (Phase IIb and III studies).
24 March 2006 | By Bengt Ljungqvist, Ph.D. and Berit Reinmüller, Ph.D. KTH Stockholm
To verify that cleanroom and clean zones are adequately installed and functioning they are usually validated during three occupancy states. First, when the installation is complete with all services connected and functioning, as-built; secondly during at-rest conditions when equipment is installed and running in a manner agreed upon by customer…
