Emerging drug discovery ecosystems in Virginia
Research specific to the Virginia Drug Discovery Consortium is the subject of the latest issue of SLAS Discovery
2023-10-03
(Press-News.org) Oak Brook, IL – A Special Issue of SLAS Discovery, Emerging Drug Discovery Ecosystems, is new for September. Volume 28, Issue 6 features three perspectives, one original research article and one protocol that align with the Virginia Drug Discovery Consortium (VaDDC) and its efforts to enhance and promote drug discovery and development in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Perspective
An acute respiratory distress syndrome drug development collaboration stimulated by the Virginia Drug Discovery Consortium
This perspective highlights the collaboration between the University of Virginia, Old Dominion University, and KeViRx, Inc., to develop potential therapeutics for acute respiratory distress syndrome during the COVID-19 pandemic through NIH funding to demonstrate the partnerships inspired by public sector funding.
Merging cultures and disciplines to create a drug discovery ecosystem at Virginia commonwealth university: Medicinal chemistry, structural biology, molecular and behavioral pharmacology and computational chemistry
The authors look back on the Department of Medicinal Chemistry at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), which, despite limited institutional support, has developed a unique drug discovery ecosystem that's made a significant impact in the areas of neurology, psychiatry, drugs of abuse, cancer, sickle cell disease, coagulopathy, inflammation, aging disorders and others.
Drug discovery efforts at George Mason University
The drug discovery efforts of George Mason University, the largest R1 research university in Virginia, are the subject of this perspective, including the development of self-assembling DNA nanoparticles for targeted drug delivery and vaccine design.
Original Research
High content screening miniaturization and single cell imaging of mature human feeder layer-free iPSC-derived neurons
The research article discusses the development of a miniaturized, feeder layer-free culturing system and image analysis algorithm to decrease neuronal clustering, enhance single-cell identification and reduce edge effects typically observed after extended neuronal cell culture.
Protocol
Assay of Sphingosine 1-phosphate Transporter Spinster Homolog 2 (Spns2) Inhibitors
The authors investigate the development of a mammalian cell-based assay for inhibiting S1P transport by targeting the transporter Spns2, a potential therapeutic target in autoimmune diseases, to gain insight into this approach for drug discovery.
Access to the September Special Issue of SLAS Discovery is available at https://slas-discovery.org/issue/S2472-5552(23)X0007-0
*****
SLAS Discovery reports how scientists develop and use novel technologies and/or approaches to provide and characterize chemical and biological tools to understand and treat human disease. The journal focuses on drug discovery sciences with a strong record of scientific rigor and impact, reporting on research that:
Enables and improves target validation
Evaluates current drug discovery technologies
Provides novel research tools
Incorporates research approaches that enhance depth of knowledge and drug discovery success
SLAS (Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening) is an international professional society of academic, industry and government life sciences researchers and the developers and providers of laboratory automation technology. The SLAS mission is to bring together researchers in academia, industry and government to advance life sciences discovery and technology via education, knowledge exchange and global community building.
SLAS Discovery: Advancing the Science of Drug Discovery, 2022 Impact Factor 3.1. Editor-in-Chief Robert M. Campbell, Ph.D., Redona Therapeutics, Watertown, MA (USA)
###
END
[Attachments] See images for this press release:
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2023-10-03
Communities with more socioeconomic vulnerability experience longer-duration power outages than more advantaged communities, according to a study. Research has shown that environmental disasters hit economically and socially vulnerable communities hardest. Scott Ganz and colleagues assessed the unequal impacts caused by the procedures electric utilities follow to restore power to customers after extreme-weather related outages. Using data from eight Atlantic hurricanes that made landfall between January 2017 and October 2020, which knocked out power for a total of over 15 million customers in 588 counties in the Southeast, the authors find ...
2023-10-03
The Genomics Platform at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard has been one of the world’s leading academic genome sequencing centers since the days of the Human Genome Project. For the last decade, these services have included clinical sequencing and other molecular assays through its wholly-owned subsidiary, the Clinical Research Sequencing Platform.
Now renamed Broad Clinical Labs (BCL), the lab is poised to further accelerate the power of ’omics technologies in clinical research, screening, and diagnostics.
BCL supports large-scale projects for which results need to be generated under a clinical quality system, such as analyses for clinical trials, biobank profiling, ...
2023-10-03
UMass Amherst researchers have pushed forward the boundaries of biomedical engineering one hundredfold with a new method for DNA detection with unprecedented sensitivity.
“DNA detection is in the center of bioengineering,” says Jinglei Ping, lead author of the paper that appeared in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Ping is an assistant professor of mechanical and industrial engineering, an adjunct assistant professor in biomedical engineering and affiliated with the Center for Personalized Health Monitoring of the Institute for Applied Life Sciences. “Everyone ...
2023-10-03
An individual diagnosed with type 2 diabetes at age 30 years could see their life expectancy fall by as much as 14 years, an international team of researchers has warned.
Even people who do not develop the condition until later in life – with a diagnosis at age 50 years – could see their life expectancy fall by up to six years, an analysis of data from 19 high-income countries found.
The researchers say the findings, published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, highlight the urgent need to ...
2023-10-03
Watching a loved one suffer the slow decline of dementia is hard enough.
But trying to find care for them that’s high-quality, safe, available and affordable is nearly as difficult, as millions of American families have found out the hard way in recent years.
That lack of options stems from a combination of workforce shortages, payment policies and a lack of consistency in dementia care delivery and regulation, according to experts from the University of Michigan and the University of California, San Francisco and their colleagues.
Now, fueled by new five-year funding expected to total $81 million from the NIH’s National Institute on Aging or ...
2023-10-03
New research by the psychologists Lucía Vicente and Helena Matute from Deusto University in Bilbao, Spain, provides evidence that people can inherit artificial intelligence biases (systematic errors in AI outputs) in their decisions.
The astonishing results achieved by artificial intelligence systems, which can, for example, hold a conversation as a human does, have given this technology an image of high reliability. More and more professional fields are implementing AI-based tools to support the decision-making of specialists to minimise errors in their decisions. However, this technology is not without risks due to biases in AI results. ...
2023-10-03
The decision to reach for a sugary beverage is heavily influenced by where you live, Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy researchers report in a new study published October 3 in the journal Nature Communications. While an analysis of the Global Dietary Database for the years 1990, 2005, and 2018 found overall consumption of sweetened drinks increased—by nearly 16% worldwide over the 28-year period studied—regional intake widely varied.
Sugary drinks are a public health concern because they have been widely associated ...
2023-10-03
Australian researchers have developed a molecular-sized, more efficient version of a widely used electronic sensor, in a breakthrough that could bring widespread benefits.
Piezoresistors are commonly used to detect vibrations in electronics and automobiles, such as in smart phones for counting steps, and for airbag deployment in cars. They are also used in medical devices such as implantable pressure sensors, as well as in aviation and space travel.
In a nationwide initiative, researchers led by Dr Nadim Darwish from Curtin University, Professor Jeffrey ...
2023-10-03
Key takeaways
Rising temperatures will cut the number of days when conditions favor prescribed fires by 17% on average across the Western U.S., mostly in spring and summer.
Winter, however, will see a net 4% increase in the number of favorable days.
Implementing controlled burns in the West will require changes to policy and the availability of firefighters.
Prescribed fires, sometimes called controlled burns, are one of the most common tools for preventing catastrophic wildfires in the Western United States. Lit by highly trained firefighters, they help clear away excess dry plant matter that might otherwise ...
2023-10-03
Researchers at University of Galway have taken a significant step forward in the management of gestational diabetes mellitus after a clinical trial involving pregnant women provided new hope for expectant mothers suffering the condition.
The findings from the trial are being published in JAMA: the Journal of American Medical Association.
Gestational diabetes is a global health issue affecting almost 3 million pregnant women worldwide every year. It is a condition characterised by elevated blood sugar levels during pregnancy, posing increased health risks for both mothers and their babies.
Professor Fidelma Dunne, Professor of Medicine ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] Emerging drug discovery ecosystems in Virginia
Research specific to the Virginia Drug Discovery Consortium is the subject of the latest issue of SLAS Discovery