drug discovery tagged posts

Researchers used acoustic waves with a frequency of 20 megaHertz to manipulate fluids, droplets and particles in nanoslits that are 50 to 250 nanometers tall. To fill the channels, researchers applied the acoustic waves in the same direction as the fluid moving into the channels. To drain the channels, the sound waves were applied in the opposite direction. Credit: James Friend/UC San Diego

A team of mechanical engineers at the University of California San Diego has successfully used acoustic waves to move fluids through small channels at the nanoscale. The breakthrough is a first step toward the manufacturing of small, portable devices that could be used for drug discovery and microrobotics applications...

Structure of the MMP8 protein. Based on PyMOL rendering of PDB 1a85 Credit: Emw

Researchers identify a potentially significant new application for a well-known human enzyme that may help treat respiratory diseases eg asthma. Many enzymes are already well characterised and their functions fairly well understood eg. MMP8 is present in connective tissues of most mammals, where it breaks the chemical bonds found in collagen. In pre-clinical research Dr F Hollfelder (Dept of Biochemistry at Cambridge) and Dr L. Jermutus, Sr Director (R&D at MedImmune) mapped a list of proteases against potential protein drug targets.

Using automation technology at MedImmune, the team then tested each of the enzymes against each target protein in turn, allowing them to identify a significant number of so-far unk...