Scientists peel helpful and harmful properties of a natural substance apart, harnessing the “sugar code” that lets viruses enter cells

"Only a fraction of drugs that show promise in animals end up proving safe and effective in humans," lead researcher says

New software programs should help identify potential avenues for improved drug treatments for diabetes and other diseases

Most drug discovery efforts begin with a biological target—the molecule inside the body whose activity the drug is expected to enhance or diminish. Assurance that the target is pharmacologically accessible and responsible in some way for the disease in question is based on target validation studies.

The Salk Institute and Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute created a compound that stops a cellular recycling process.

Meet Doug Frantz. The Max and Minnie Tomerlin Voelcker Distinguished Professor in Chemistry was selected by the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly & Co. to receive its Outstanding Open Innovation Drug Discovery Collaborator Award.

Antibodies are specific molecules that can lock onto a particular cellular structure to start, stop or otherwise temper a biological process. Because they are so specific, antibodies are at the forefront of drug discovery. So drug companies want a faster route to step one: identifying which of the millions of possible antibodies will work against molecules that cause disease.

Big data might bring more benefits to drug discovery than to any other field. For one thing, discovering a new drug turns out to be incredibly difficult. On average, a pharmaceutical company tries about 10,000 drug candidates for every one that ends up on the market. Plus, the process of discovering and developing a new drug costs hundreds of millions of dollars and takes more than a decade—some say more for both measurements.

Scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have been awarded a $1.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to develop drug candidates that could treat cancer and neurodegenerative disease.

Eve, an artificially-intelligent ‘robot scientist’ could make drug discovery faster and much cheaper, say researchers writing in the Royal Society journal Interface. The team has demonstrated the success of the approach as Eve discovered that a compound shown to have anti-cancer properties might also be used in the fight against malaria.