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.

Novel molecule inhibits cancer-causing transcription factors

A novel molecule designed by scientists at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and the University of Virginia inhibits progression of a hard-to-treat form of recurring acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in patient tissue.

2 Apr 2015

Selvita commences IND-enabling studies for its first oncology drug candidate

Selvita, the largest drug discovery company in Central and Eastern Europe, announced today that it is commencing IND-enabling studies for SEL24 project, the company’s first oncology drug candidate.

1 Apr 2015

Aeterna Zentaris inks Material Transfer Agreement with MUSC

Aeterna Zentaris Inc. today announced that it has agreed to transfer its discovery library of roughly 100,000 unique compounds to the South Carolina Center for Therapeutic Discovery & Development (the Center) pursuant to a just concluded Material Transfer Agreement.

31 Mar 2015

Broad Institute expands collaboration with Bayer to develop new cardiovascular therapies

The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard have expanded their collaboration with Bayer HealthCare to include cardiovascular genomics and drug discovery. The goal of this new part of the alliance is to leverage insights from human genetics to help create new cardiovascular therapies.

31 Mar 2015

Cantrixil proves highly effective at killing human ovarian stem cells in pre-clinical study

US-Australian drug discovery company, Novogen Ltd, and its subsidiary, CanTx, Inc., and Yale University, on March 27 released pre-clinical data on experimental anti-cancer drug, Cantrixil. The data was presented as an oral presentation by Professor Gil Mor MD PhD of Yale Medical School to the 62nd Annual Scientific Meeting of the Society of Reproductive Investigation in San Francisco, CA.

30 Mar 2015

Fujifilm enters into definitive agreement to acquire Cellular Dynamics International

FUJIFILM Holdings Corporation (President: Shigehiro Nakajima) and Cellular Dynamics International, Inc. (CEO: Robert J. Palay), a leading developer and manufacturer of fully functioning human cells in industrial quantities to precise specifications, today announced that the two companies have entered into a definitive agreement whereby Fujifilm will acquire CDI via an all-cash tender offer to be followed by a second step merger.

30 Mar 2015

UW Medicine receives $6 million from Ellison Foundation to revolutionize care for people with Alzheimer's

Alzheimer's disease, a severe and progressive degenerative condition that leads to dementia, affects millions of people in the U.S. At present, there is no cure. Unless new treatments emerge, the Centers for Disease Control estimates that approximately 13.8 million people in the U.S. will live with Alzheimer's-related dementia by 2050.

29 Mar 2015

Taconic, Cellaria partner to facilitate use of patient-derived xenografts for oncology research

Taconic Biosciences and Cellaria Biosciences today announced that the two companies have entered into a scientific collaboration designed to facilitate and improve the utility of patient-derived xenografts (PDXs) in animal models for oncology and immuno-oncology research. Cellaria’s novel methodologies for generating cells from patient tumors will complement Taconic’s industry-leading portfolio of tissue humanized mouse models, which are well-suited as hosts for PDXs.

27 Mar 2015

Philip Low to be recognized with AACR Award for Outstanding Achievement in Chemistry in Cancer Research

The American Association for Cancer Research will recognize Philip S. Low, PhD, with the ninth annual AACR Award for Outstanding Achievement in Chemistry in Cancer Research at the AACR Annual Meeting 2015, to be held in Philadelphia, April 18-22.

26 Mar 2015

The fight continues to end tuberculosis

Today is World TB Day. The Centenary Institute is one of the leading medical research institutes in Australia championing the fight to put an end to this insidious disease.

24 Mar 2015

Hypermethylation serves as protective barrier inhibiting development of ALS, FTD

Penn Medicine researchers have discovered that hypermethylation - the epigenetic ability to turn down or turn off a bad gene implicated in 10 to 30 percent of patients with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and Frontotemporal Degeneration (FTD) - serves as a protective barrier inhibiting the development of these diseases.

21 Mar 2015

Sandia biosciences technologies could soon find their way into doctors' offices

Technologies developed in Sandia National Laboratories' biosciences program could soon find their way into doctors' offices -- devices like wearable microneedles that continuously analyze electrolyte levels and a lab-on-a-disk that can test a drop of blood for 64 different diseases in minutes.

20 Mar 2015

96-well glass vial storage plate for UHPLC

Porvair Sciences glass vial storage plate combines 96 borosilicate glass vials of 700µl into a rigid polypropylene carrier microplate to provide a superior product for storage and transportation applications.

19 Mar 2015

Denator's heat-stabilization system preserves lipids at close-to-in vivo-levels

Denator AB announced today that the company’s heat-stabilization system has been demonstrated to preserve lipids at close-to-in vivo-levels. To preserve lipids in a reliable manner prior to mass spectrometry-based analysis is pivotal to accurately quantify and identify potential biomarkers and perform disease research.

19 Mar 2015

Gentronix signs three-year technology access deal with SIMM

UK based Gentronix Limited, the specialist genetic toxicology company, today announced it has signed a three year technology access deal with one of China's most prestigious research intensive institutes, Shanghai Institute Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

18 Mar 2015

New drug-like molecule shows promise in preventing MS progression

Walter and Eliza Hall Institute scientists have developed a new drug-like molecule that can halt inflammation and has shown promise in preventing the progression of multiple sclerosis (MS).

17 Mar 2015

Scientists simplify chemical synthesis of small molecules using 3D printing technology

Howard Hughes Medical Institute scientists have simplified the chemical synthesis of small molecules, eliminating a major bottleneck that limits the exploration of a class of compounds offering tremendous potential for medicine and technology.

13 Mar 2015

ERC project aims to identify new treatments for prostate cancer

The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded a Consolidator Grant to ICREA researcher Xavier Salvatella, head of the Molecular Biophysics Lab at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona).

13 Mar 2015

Ember Therapeutics, Mariel Therapeutics sign definitive merger agreement

Ember Therapeutics, Inc., a Boston-based biotechnology company dedicated to the discovery and development of novel obesity and diabetic related therapies, and Mariel Therapeutics, a privately held, New York-based biotechnology company developing targeted therapies for osteoarthritis and kidney fibrosis using Bone Morphogenetic Protein (BMP)-7, jointly announce today that they have entered into a definitive agreement to merge the two companies.

12 Mar 2015

Brazil's first open-access research facility to be established at UNICAMP

Open-access research into drug discovery has arrived in South America, with a ground-breaking collaboration between leading scientists in North America, Europe and Brazil to provide completely free and open research results to the world.