Collaborative Opportunities in Vascular Dementia
Vascular dementia (VaD) is the second most common form of dementia after Alzheimer’s Disease and its prevalence increases with age. In addition, cardiovascular disease contributes as a comorbidity to all other forms of dementia, and greatly increases the probability that Alzheimer’s pathology will result in clinical dementia. Vascular cognitive impairment (VCI) is a term encompassing vascular […]
Preparation, Characterisation and in vitro Assessment of siRNA-loaded Lipid-Based Nanoparticles
This paper demonstrates the combined in vitro capabilities of Seda Pharmaceutical Development Services in the manufacture and physical characterisation of lipid-based nanoparticles for nucleic acid delivery, coupled with the advanced in vitro characterisation capabilities of Medicines Discovery Catapult (MDC). Together, these organisations can support the design, prototype manufacture and screening of complex medicines ready for […]
Guiding Principles for ALS Drug Discovery and Development
Guiding Principles for ALS Drug Discovery and Development SUMMARY Since 2020, three UK-based organisations, Medicines Discovery Catapult, MND Association and My Name’5 Doddie Foundation, have been working together to galvanise the cross-sector ALS research community to identify key opportunities and challenges to accelerating drug discovery. A key challenge identified was the need for more consensus […]
Spatially resolved deconvolution of the fibrotic niche in lung fibrosis
A defining pathological feature of human lung fibrosis is localized tissue heterogeneity, which challenges the interpretation of transcriptomic studies that typically lose spatial information. Here we investigate spatial gene expression in diagnostic tissue using digital profiling technology. We identify distinct, region-specific gene expression signatures as well as shared gene signatures. By integration with single-cell data, we spatially map the cellular composition within and distant from the fibrotic niche, demonstrating discrete changes in homeostatic and pathologic cell populations even in morphologically preserved lung, while through ligand-receptor analysis, we investigate cellular cross-talk within the fibrotic niche. We confirm findings through bioinformatic, tissue, and in vitro analyses, identifying that loss of NFKB inhibitor zeta in alveolar epithelial cells dysregulates the TGFb/IL-6 signaling axis, which may impair homeostatic responses to environmental stress. Thus, spatially resolved deconvolution advances understanding of cell composition and microenvironment in human lung fibrogenesis.
MDC Connects: A Guide to Complex Medicines
MDC Connects was a series of weekly webinars which ran in 2021, a guide to Complex Medicines and RNA Therpapeutics. The sessions set out to educate, inform, and advise the community in drug discovery and drug delivery, focusing on recent trends and practice, encapsulating insight from experts in these areas. The sessions were aimed at small […]
The Role of Collaboration in Accelerating Patient Focused Hearing Therapeutic Development
Workshop A: 25 May 2021, organised by the Hearing Medicines Discovery Syndicate. Event run and owned by Hanson Wade. In this workshop, we explored the evolving landscape of hearing therapeutics and the role of collaboration in advancing the field. Participants and panellists reviewed the global hearing therapeutic pipeline for hearing disorders and shared their perspectives […]
State of the Discovery Nation 2021
Complex medicines will become as important as traditional small molecule drugs in the coming years, with market values of hundreds of billions of pounds. Pharmaceutical and biotech companies working in complex medicines in the UK include those specialising in antibody-drug conjugates, firms developing oligonucleotide therapeutics, entities focusing on proprietary delivery technologies for a range of […]
Proposed Definition of ‘Complex Medicine’
In a quest to address novel and previously intractable targets, drug discovery is undergoing a rapid transition from traditional small molecule and antibody approaches to a more diverse range of therapeutic modalities, including RNA therapeutics and antibody-drug conjugates. These exciting new approaches raise challenges as well as opportunities, with a critical need for development of […]
A roadmap for the discovery of therapeutics in healthy ageing
This report was produced in collaboration with colleagues at the Medicines Discovery Catapult, a UK SPINE partner. It is a guide to established best practice in drug discovery with a focus on interrogating the aetiology of age-associated multimorbidity. It complements the drug discovery roadmap, case studies drawn from recent clinical trials illustrate regulatory strategies for […]