drug discovery

Flow chemistry is a growing technology in the pharma industry, where it has proved itself invaluable, especially in the process development phase of drug discovery. However, the hit-to-lead generation phase of drug discovery has been slower to embrace these techniques. Nevertheless, the potential benefits are huge, particularly for rapid library generation and challenging chemistries that…

MIT researchers are touting a new machine-learning technique called DeepBAR that can quickly calculate the binding affinities between drug candidates and their targets. DeepBAR produces precise calculations in a fraction of the time compared to conventional techniques, according to the researchers. They think the software could potentially accelerate drug discovery and protein engineering. “Our method…

While organ-on-a-chip technology has evolved tremendously over the past 15 years, adoption of the technology remains at an early stage. But as organ-chip technology advances and the R&D costs for pharma companies continue to hover near unsustainable levels, organ-on-a-chip technology has the promise to address what cell biologist and bioengineer Donald Ingber called the “broken”…

The zebrafish, commonly found in aquariums, is widely tapped in drug development to understand disease mechanisms. The advent of CRISPR gene editing has given researchers more flexibility in developing disease models, thanks to its ability to create gene-edited zebrafish variants. To that end, the privately-held company ZeClinics (Barcelona) is using CRISPR-based techniques to make unique…

Turbine, a simulation-based drug discovery company today announced the closing of an institutional financing round led by Delin Ventures. The seed fund will be used to redesign the failure-prone oncology drug discovery process into a series of rational steps facilitated by Turbine’s proprietary human cell model and simulation platform. The company’s first institutional financing round…