The Label-Free Technologies conference in Amsterdam, Netherlands, on 1-3 November 2012, brings together the latest research on the advances and application of label-free technology in pharmacology and drug discovery.
03 May 2012
ELRIG (European Laboratory Robotics Interest Group) on 30th April announced the programme for its 6th Annual Drug Discovery Conference, in collaboration with SLAS (Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening). The conference is to be held at Manchester Central Convention Complex on 5th – 6th September 2012. Registration for the event is free and over 1,000 delegates are expected to attend.
01 May 2012
The FDA has approved Avid Radiopharmaceuticals’ (now part of Eli Lilly) Amyvid which is a brain plaque diagnostic tool using florbetapir (F-AV-45). This radiotracer dye agent is delivered intravenously and is drawn to beta-amyloid, thus allowing a physician to see accumulations of amyloid in the brain.
17 April 2012
Cancer Research UK scientists have developed a technique they believe could be used to detect tiny secondary tumours in the brain, a process that is currently impossible, according to research published in PNAS.
28 March 2012
The importance of pharmacogenetics and stratified medicine as part of the drug development processes is now widely acknowledge, offering the opportunity to address many of the challenges facing the biopharmaceutical industry today and supporting an era where cost-effectiveness and value-based pricing rule. Moving on from the inaugural London Genetics Pharmacogenetic conference in 2009, at which the role of pharmacogenetics in drug discovery and development was debated, the 2nd London Genetics conference, entitled ‘Pharmacogenetics – Why, How and When?’ focused on how and when to apply stratified approaches from drug discovery through to cost-effectiveness evaluation and reimbursement.
14 November 2011
A scanner which combines the convenience of a desktop scanner with the functionality of a powerful laboratory imaging device has been developed at the University of Oxford’s Classics Department, and is now being commercialised by a new company Oxford Multi Spectral Limited which was today spun out by the University’s technology transfer company Isis Innovation.
19 September 2011
A treatment system called the Novalis® Tx™ has gone into service, which has the ability to destroy cancerous cells virtually anywhere in the body in a single, 20-minute session, without the need for a single cut of the scalpel.
25 July 2011
Horizon Discovery (Horizon), a leading provider of research tools to support the development of personalized medicines, has announced that it has successfully completed an eighteen month pilot program with Novartis, designed to test the ability of Horizon’s GENESISTM rAAV gene-editing platform to generate human isogenic cell lines for use by Novartis pre-clinical research programs.
16 June 2011
A University of Edinburgh based start-up company has created the world’s first 3D hologram based on the properties of a Nobel Prize winning scientific discovery, which enhances biomedical research into the behavioural activity of proteins.
26 May 2011
Scientists reveal that an ‘electronic nose’ can distinguish between molecules found in the breath of head-and-neck cancer patients and those of healthy people, according to the results of a small, initial study, published in the British Journal of Cancer.
26 April 2011
Neurophysiologists of the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (Iit) and the University of Genoa, together with geneticists of the Centre Hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal have demonstrated the involvement of the Synapsin-1 gene (SYN1) in epilepsy and autism.
21 April 2011
Horizon Discovery (Horizon), a leading provider of research tools to support the development of personalized medicines, has announced that it has entered into a 3-year collaboration with the Fox Chase Cancer Center (Fox Chase). The focus of the collaboration is to apply rAAV gene targeting in mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells, and for the discovery of genes involved in resistance to EGFR-targeted therapies in human cancer, such as PI3K.
19 April 2011
Scientists at the Babraham Institute have discovered a critical piece of the jigsaw that explains how a type of immune cell – a white blood cell known as a neutrophil – is activated by antibodies. The research, published today in the journal Science Signaling, brings new understanding to how the Phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) signalling pathway is used to regulate neutrophil function. This may pave the way for the development of a strategy to specifically inhibit the inappropriate activation of these immune cells that is seen in auto-immune inflammatory conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, glomerulonephritis and some skin blistering diseases.
12 April 2011
Research being presented today (01 April) at the UK National Stem Cell Network annual science conference provides another piece in the puzzle of why it can be so hard to produce large numbers of the same type of cell in the lab - a process that is vital for scaling up stem cell production for therapeutic use. This knowledge will help researchers to develop strategies for obtaining the desired cell type for use in either research or medicine.
01 April 2011
Senectus Therapeutics has signed a deal to screen a selection of AstraZeneca’s chemical compound library to identify those which trigger a key element of cancer cell ageing – called senescence. Senescent cells are those which after many rounds of cell growth and division enter a ‘sleep’ phase where the normal cell cycle is stopped. This blocks the uncontrolled growth and division of cells. It is a natural mechanism to prevent cancer. But cancer cells find ways to trick their way past this block and continue to grow and divide. Understanding the triggers to cell ageing may reveal molecular targets for completely new ways to treat cancer.
23 March 2011
Metabolon, Inc., announces the publication of “Profiling the effects of isocitrate dehydrogenase 1 and 2 mutations on the cellular metabolome”, in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS 108 (8) 3270-3275).
03 March 2011
The "6th International MS Symposium" is the latest in an occasional series of scientific meetings initiated (by Micromass) in 1998. Today these meetings are sponsored by Waters MS Technologies. The format is that of a legitimate scientific meeting, open to all, that typically attracts Ca 150+ delegates.
28 February 2011
New medicines to prevent and treat hearing loss or tinnitus could be available within 10 years, if a bold new initiative by RNID succeeds in bringing scientists, pharmaceutical companies, funding bodies and private investors together to accelerate clinical trials.
23 February 2011
ELRIG (European Laboratory Robotics Interest Group) are hosting a free conference on the 15th March 2011 at Hinxton Hall, Cambridge UK on the topic of “Advances in Cell-Based Screening Technologies.With technological developments advancing at a seemly ever-increasing pace, methods of monitoring biological activity that a decade ago wouldn’t look out of place on Star Trek are beginning to filter into the lab.How are these being used, what can they tell us and what are the limitations? At this conference you will hear talks on the latest cutting edge detection technologies and biological techniques transitioning into screening labs. How are they faring and what might you using 10 years from now?
14 February 2011
CANCER RESEARCH UK will be supported by AstraZeneca and Pfizer in a multimillion pound initiative to examine how genetic tests to improve cancer diagnosis can be best rolled out across the NHS.Cancer Research UK’s pioneering “Stratified Medicine Programme”* will also promote research into new targeted treatments by building a database of genetic information about tumours, treatments and survival rates that will enable researchers to design more effective cancer treatments in future.
01 February 2011