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Pharma collaborations with academic institutions highlight close bilateral partnerships as an emerging trend in pharmaceutical discovery and translational science.
The pilot programme Molecular Libraries Initiative, part of the NIH Roadmap, gave academic researchers access to high-throughput screening technology and expertise. Now, as this initiative enters its next phase, a key question is how to make the most of the data generated. David Bradley investigates.
In this Perspective, Max and Stewart discuss how methods of molecular epidemiology, proved effective in the study of other diseases, can enhance the returns from human genomic studies and expedite the development of new drugs to prevent or treat pain.
Neuroprotective agents that slow cell death, vital for the treatment of a range of neurodegenerative disorders, are currently lacking. Dragunow discusses some of the factors contributing to the failure of translation from the laboratory to the clinic, and suggests approaches to introduce an adult human preclinical platform to overcome translation obstacles in neurodegenerative drug development.
Pseudoreceptor models can provide a valuable tool for drug design in cases where a high-resolution structure of the target is not available. This article reviews pseudoreceptor modelling techniques, presenting recent applications in hit and lead finding, and critically discusses the prerequisites, advantages and limitations of the various approaches.
The recent awareness that bile acids act as complex metabolic integrators and signalling factors has led to the recognition of bile-acid signalling as a potential novel therapeutic target in metabolic disease. Thomas and colleagues overview the metabolic roles of bile acids and discuss approaches to modulate their signalling pathways in the treatment of disorders including obesity, type 2 diabetes, hypertriglyceridaemia and atherosclerosis.
In this Review, Lambert describes the physiology and potential clinical applications of nociceptin/orphanin FQ and its receptor. This peptide–receptor system has been implicated in a wide range of biological functions such as pain, drug abuse, cardiovascular control and immunity.
