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.

Study reveals how lipids and water molecules control 5-hydroxytryptamine receptors

Serotonin, or 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT), is a kind of neurotransmitter. 5-HT can regulate multifaceted physiological functions such as mood, cognition, learning, memory, and emotions through 5-HT receptors.

26 Mar 2021

Researchers develop new cell-based test system to identify immunoregulatory modulators

Our immune system is very successful when it comes to warding off viruses and bacteria. It also recognizes cancer cells as potential enemies and fights them. However, cancer cells have developed strategies to evade surveillance by the immune system and to prevent immune response.

18 Mar 2021

Promising drug targets identified for aggressive forms of cancers

Scientists have largely been producing transcriptomic data in an attempt to find clues about modified cellular pathways that may be fueling cancer behavior.

5 Mar 2021

New approach could speed the search for promising therapies

Assessing a drug compound by its activity, not simply its structure, is a new approach that could speed the search for COVID-19 therapies and reveal more potential therapies for other diseases.

2 Mar 2021

An outlook on latest trends in peptide drug discovery and development

Currently, there are more than 80 peptide drugs on the global market and about twice as many in clinical development. Due to their beneficial properties, these biomolecules play already an important role in the treatment of diseases such as diabetes, cancer, hormone disorders, HIV infection, and multiple sclerosis.

11 Feb 2021

New platform may accelerate genomic medicine research, drug therapies

A research team, headed by Cleveland Clinic, has designed a novel personalized genomic medicine platform that would help speed up genomic medicine studies as well as genome-informed drug discovery. The results of the new study have been recently published in the Genome Biology journal.

9 Feb 2021

Advances in cancer research can expand effectiveness of immunotherapy

Scientists are hoping advances in cancer research could lead to a day when a patient's own immune system could be used to fight and destroy a wide range of tumors.

3 Feb 2021

Study shows how abnormal number of chromosomes could become a weak point for cancer cells

What makes cancer cells different from ordinary cells in our bodies? Can these differences be used to strike at them and paralyze their activity?

28 Jan 2021

Researchers identify a new way to stop COVID-19 virus

While the world awaits broad distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, researchers at Ohio University just published highly significant and timely results in the search for another way to stop the virus -- by disrupting its RNA and its ability to reproduce.

22 Jan 2021

Scientists identify the sensor in human lungs that detects SARS-CoV-2

Scientists at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute have identified the sensor in human lungs that detects SARS-CoV-2 and signals that it's time to mount an antiviral response.

13 Jan 2021

HKU researchers develop new drug discovery strategy targeting membrane proteins on live cells

A research team led by Dr Xiaoyu LI from the Research Division for Chemistry, Faculty of Science, in collaboration with Professor Yizhou LI from School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Chongqing University and Professor Yan CAO from School of Pharmacy, Second Military Medical University in Shanghai has developed a new drug discovery method targeting membrane proteins on live cells.

29 Dec 2020

Kobe University and Sysmex conduct joint research on new blood test for identifying COVID-19

Kobe University and Sysmex Corporation have been engaged in joint research on the ELISPOT method, a new blood test for identifying the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

28 Dec 2020

Scientists discover new class of compounds for combating antimicrobial resistance

Wistar Institute scientists have discovered a new class of compounds that uniquely combine direct antibiotic killing of pan drug-resistant bacterial pathogens with a simultaneous rapid immune response for combatting antimicrobial resistance (AMR). These finding were published today in Nature.

24 Dec 2020

Researchers report a potential cancer drug that targets mitochondrial function

A newly developed compound starves cancer cells by attacking their "power plants" - the so-called mitochondria. The new compound prevents the genetic information within mitochondria from being read.

23 Dec 2020

Autobahn Labs announces strategic drug discovery collaboration with UCSF

Autobahn Labs, a virtual incubator partnering with top academic and research institutions to catalyze early-stage drug discovery and development, today announced a strategic collaboration with the University of California San Francisco (UCSF).

21 Dec 2020

Researchers create 3D miniature organs that precisely mimic human tissues

Organoids are tissues that look like organs and are extracted from stem cells cultured in laboratories. They are usually known as miniature organs.

21 Dec 2020

Using genetic engineering to grow synthetic livers

News-Medical talks to Dr. Mo Ebrahimkhani about his research using genetic engineering together with a machine-learning algorithm to mature a lab-grown 'designer liver organoid'.

From University of Pittsburgh 15 Dec 2020

Specific cellular pathways in the fetal gut may reactivate Crohn’s Disease

Researchers have successfully monitored the initial stages of gut development in a human fetus, in explicit detail.

8 Dec 2020

Study shows fluorescent protein molecules act as tiny antennas with optical properties

Scientists have revealed that fluorescent protein molecules serve as antennas with optical characteristics according to their spatial orientation.

4 Dec 2020

New breakthrough in AI system could significantly accelerate biological research

In a major scientific advance, the latest version of DeepMind's AI system AlphaFold has been recognized as a solution to the 50-year-old grand challenge of protein structure prediction, often referred to as the 'protein folding problem', according to a rigorous independent assessment.

1 Dec 2020