Top News from the Drug Discovery & Development Community this Month

Learn from the exclusive interviews with Dr David Wraith and Dr Anne-Claude Gingras, read about high-throughput screening technologies, bio-processing, toxicity analysis using imaging, LC/MS and animal model imaging:

Immunotherapy Breakthrough for Autoimmune Diseases: An Exclusive Interview with Professor David Wraith
Scientists in the School of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the University of Bristol have made an important breakthrough in the fight against debilitating autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS), by revealing how to switch off specific immune cells without compromising the whole immune system. SelectScience spoke to Professor Wraith, who led the research funded by the Wellcome Trust, about the research and the technologies his group used.

High-Cell-Density Cultivation of Escherichia coli in a BIOSTAT® D-DCU 10-3 Stainless Steel Bioreactor
Bioreactors are available in a scalable range from laboratory to production scale, which enables easy process transfer and scale-up. BIOSTAT® D-DCU is a bioreactor for both microbial and cell culture applications, offering the capability of sterilization in place (SIP). This application note demonstrates the high-cell-density cultivation of Escherichia coli in a BIOSTAT® D-DCU 10-3 Bioreactor.

5 Top Tips for the Perfect High-Throughput Screening Lab
In the past 15 years, changes in the cost and reliability of technology have caused an explosion of tools and applications that increased the capability and capacity of any researcher, lab or company to speed up discovery. Automation and high throughput screening (HTS) are two examples of these advances that have become a normal presence in the majority of the world’s labs today. Combine these capabilities with the power of flow cytometry and your options are limitless.

Exclusive Interview: Characterizing Protein-Protein Interactions in Cancers Using AP-SWATH
Dr Anne-Claude Gingras, a Senior Investigator and Lea Reichmann Chair in Cancer Proteomics at the Luenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, is a recognized authority in the field of proteomics. Her current research focuses on the cellular mechanisms involved in diseases, including cancer and cerebral cavernous malformations. Dr Gingras spoke exclusively to SelectScience about the state-of-the-art technology being used by her research group and her recent paper, published in Nature Methods, which details a quantitative approach for interaction proteomics.

Cytotoxicity Studies on 3D Primary Liver Microtissues Using the Operetta System from PerkinElmer
This application note presents a proof of concept study to demonstrate the feasibility of a 4-color toxicity assay using living Troglitazone and Staurosporine treated primary human liver microtissues. In this assay, the combination of High Content Imaging with Multimode Detection using the Operetta system from PerkinElmer provides complementary readouts for assessing phenotypic changes and potential toxicological pathways beyond general cytotoxicity markers.

Development of Low Extractable Syringe Filters for Liquid Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry Applications
This poster describes the development of the Acrodisc MS syringe filters. The cleanliness of filter effluents using Acrodisc MS syringe filters and two commercially available alternative syringe filters are compared by evaluating the presence of extractable/leachable compounds in the filter effluents under the same filtration and LC/ESI/MS analytical test conditions. Additionally, the ME (ion suppression/enhancement) due to potentially interfering extractable/leachable compounds is studied for the analyses of three drug substances by comparing the MS signal intensity of each drug substance spiked into the filter effluent against a control solution using fast gradient LC/ESI/MS.

Scanning a Mouse on the Odyssey® System: Hints and Tips
This article presents several useful factors to consider when imaging mice using the Odyssey CLx infrared imaging systems.