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.

New Bioluminescent Proteins Enable Excitation-Free Imaging in Living Organisms

Bioluminescence is the natural chemical process of light creation in some living creatures that makes fireflies flicker and some jellyfish glow.

14 Nov 2024

Domainex Integrates Nuclera’s eProtein Discovery System to Enhance Drug Discovery Services

Nuclera, the biotechnology company accelerating protein expression and optimization through its benchtop eProtein Discovery™ system, and Domainex, a multi-award winning provider of integrated, pre-clinical drug discovery services, today announced that Domainex is the first contract research organization (CRO) to have installed the eProtein Discovery system and offer protein production services using the technology.

9 Nov 2024

Predicting Disease-Causing Protein Interactions with PIONEER

Researchers at Cornell University and Cleveland Clinic developed an open-access computational platform and online database that helps identify targetable interactions between proteins for therapeutic purposes.

25 Oct 2024

Personalized Mini-Brains Provide Insight into Autism Spectrum Disorder

Using stem cells generated from patients with a rare and severe form of autism spectrum disorder and intellectual disability, Scripps Research scientists have grown personalized "mini-brains" (or organoids) to study the disorder in new detail.

24 Oct 2024

Melanin May Act as a "Drug Sponge," Influencing Medication Effectiveness

Skin pigmentation may act as a "sponge" for some medications, potentially influencing the speed with which active drugs reach their intended targets, a pair of scientists report in a perspective article published in the journal Human Genomics.

15 Oct 2024

Researchers Develop Highly Selective SARS-CoV-2 Mpro Inhibitors

New research from The Wistar Institute's Salvino lab -; led by professor Joseph Salvino, Ph.D. -; has identified a novel series of SARS-CoV-2 Mpro inhibitors that may lead to potential new COVID-19 treatments that, according to preclinical testing, effectively inhibits COVID-19 and synergizes with existing anti-COVID therapies.

9 Oct 2024

Fighting Drug-Resistant TB with a Novel Antibiotic

A novel semi-synthetic molecule that produces significant activity against strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, including those that are resistant to drugs, can be generated from natural compounds according to a study published in the American Society for Microbiology journal Microbiology Spectrum.

4 Oct 2024

Discovering New Drug Targets Through Paralog Hopping

Some proteins in the human body are easy to block with a drug; they have an obvious spot in their structure where a drug can fit, like a key in a lock. But other proteins are more difficult to target, with no clear drug-binding sites.

3 Oct 2024

New AI Model ProteinGenerator Revolutionizes Protein Design with Sequence and Structure Integration

Harnessing deep learning, ProteinGenerator designs diverse proteins with specific properties, offering new avenues for drug development and biotechnology.

2 Oct 2024

One-Third of Antibody Drugs Show Unintended Target Binding

Integral Molecular, a leader in antibody discovery and characterization, has published new research in the journal mAbs, revealing that as many as one-third of antibody-based drugs exhibit nonspecific binding to unintended targets.

18 Sep 2024

A Novel Method for Incorporating Non-Canonical Amino Acids into Proteins

Every basic biology lesson teaches that proteins are made up of combinations of 20 distinct amino acids, which are ordered in various patterns similar to words.

12 Sep 2024

Crystal Structure of i-Motif DNA Opens Doors for Targeted Drug Design

The first crystal structure of an alternative DNA shape from the insulin gene has been revealed by a UCL-led research team.

9 Sep 2024

ERS Genomics and Medicines Discovery Catapult Forge CRISPR Licensing Partnership

ERS Genomics Limited (‘ERS’), the CRISPR licensing Company, and Medicines Discovery Catapult (‘MDC’), an independent, not-for-profit drug discovery innovation center, have signed a non-exclusive commercial-use CRISPR license agreement.

6 Sep 2024

New Map Reveals Hidden Interactions Between Receptors and Proteins

A single superfamily of receptors found on the surface of human cells is the target of one out of every three FDA-approved medications.

28 Aug 2024

RNA Interference Drugs Offer Faster, More Effective Alternative to Traditional Drug Discovery

Alnylam's RNA interference platform accelerates drug discovery by targeting RNA transcripts, addressing complex diseases with innovative therapeutic strategies.

28 Aug 2024

New Human Intestinal Immuno-Organoids Reveal Insights into Immune Cell Dynamics and Cancer Immunotherapy

Research on intestinal immuno-organoids reveals their potential in modeling immune interactions and studying intestinal diseases linked to cancer therapies.

26 Aug 2024

Clinical Trials Supported by Genetics Show Higher Success Rates

Analyzing 28,561 discontinued trials, the study reveals safety and efficacy concerns as major discontinuation factors, with genetics playing a crucial role.

23 Aug 2024

Enhanced Drug Discovery with Novel Sulfur Fluoride Exchange Reagent

Researchers at the Moffitt Cancer Center have created a new reagent that improves drug production precision. This novel approach, described in Nature Communications, presents a new sulfur fluoride exchange (SuFEx) reagent that enables the highly regulated manufacture of important sulfur-based compounds such as sulfinamides, sulfonimidamides, and sulfoximines.

19 Aug 2024

Advancing Cardiovascular Drug Discovery: Translational Framework Leverages Genetic and Proteomic Insights

A validated framework to translate these recent advances in genoproteomics into clinical applications in cardiovascular drug development.

19 Aug 2024

Emerging Treatments and Drug Repositioning for NAFLD and NASH

The current research on drug candidates and molecular targets being clinically tested for the treatment of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and NAFLD.

9 Aug 2024