drug development

Researchers Solve Mystery of Mutations in Antibodies
03/04/2013 - 14:37

Scientists have discovered a new role for many of the changes that occur to antibodies as they mature to fight disease. The discovery could change the thinking about how the human immune system protects against foreign substances and might eventually lead to the development of better antibody-based drugs.

 

more
Improvement in child cancer survival threatened by lack of new drug development
02/20/2013 - 10:09

A series of studies published today, led by some of the world’s most eminent cancer experts, including Professor Richard Sullivan at King’s College London, outline some of the biggest challenges to the improvement of cancer care for children and young people. Experts from 19 countries believe further progress is being threatened by increasingly strict research regulations and insufficient development of new drugs.

 

more
Automated system for high-speed analysis of vertebrate larvae could aid drug development
02/12/2013 - 11:54

Zebrafish larvae — tiny, transparent and fast-growing vertebrates — are widely used to study development and disease. However, visually examining the larvae for variations caused by drugs or genetic mutations is an imprecise, painstaking and time-consuming process.

 

more
Scientists Uncover Potential Drug Target to Block Cell Death in Parkinson’s Disease
01/10/2013 - 15:16

Oxidative stress is a primary villain in a host of diseases that range from cancer and heart failure to Alzheimer’s disease, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease. Now, scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have found that blocking the interaction of a critical enzyme may counteract the destruction of neurons associated with these neurodegenerative diseases, suggesting a potential new target for drug development.

more
Tissue engineering: Growing new organs, and more
12/14/2012 - 10:05

With the recent launch of MIT’s Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, MIT News examines research with the potential to reshape medicine and health care through new scientific knowledge, novel treatments and products, better management of medical data, and improvements in health-care delivery.

more
Strengthening proteins with polymers
05/22/2012 - 14:35

In a new study published in the Journal of the American Society of Chemistry, investigators from the UCLA Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA (CNSI) describe how they synthesized polymers to attach to proteins in order to stabilize them during shipping, storage and other activities. The study findings suggest that these polymers could be useful in stabilizing protein formulations.

more