Stories indexed under: Pharmaceutical sciences

Total: 8

• Sweet insight: Discovery could speed drug development Aug. 21, 2011 The surface of cells and many biologically active molecules are studded with sugar structures that are not used to store energy, but rather are involved in communication, immunity and inflammation. In a similar manner, sugars attached to drugs can enhance, change or neutralize their effects, says Jon Thorson, a professor of pharmaceutical sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Pharmacy.
• New technology promises to help drug makers go green June 16, 2010 Production of a single kilogram of pharmaceuticals often yields hundreds of kilograms of chemical waste. Now, new chemistry developed by scientists at UW, combined with technology developed by researchers from Eli Lilly and Company, promises to dramatically reduce that waste stream for a key step in the pharmaceutical production process.
• Engineered bacterium churns out two new key antibiotics Feb. 18, 2009 In recent years, scientists have isolated two potent natural antibiotics - platensimycin and platencin - that are highly effective against bacterial infection, including those caused by the most dreaded drug-resistant microbes.
• Psychoactive compound activates mysterious receptor Feb. 12, 2009 A hallucinogenic compound found in a plant indigenous to South America and used in shamanic rituals regulates a mysterious protein that is abundant throughout the body, University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers have discovered.
• Genetic change extends mouse life, points to possible treatment for ALS Dec. 9, 2008 There are many ways to die, but amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, must be one of the worst. By the time a patient notices muscle weakness, the neurons that control the muscles have already begun dying, in an untreatable process that brings death within two to five years.
• Using evolution, UW team creates a template for many new therapeutic agents Sept. 10, 2007 By guiding an enzyme down a new evolutionary pathway, a team of University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers has created a new form of an enzyme capable of producing a range of potential new therapeutic agents with anticancer and antibiotic properties.
• Fishing for new anti-inflammatory, cancer drugs April 10, 2007 Though cell movement and migration in the body play a central role in mediating injury and disease, including inflammatory responses and cancer metastasis, drugs designed to stifle cells’ nomadic tendencies are scarce. A new interdisciplinary research project funded by the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery seed grant program seeks to develop a novel drug-discovery process that may start to fill this gap.
• Nanoscale packaging could aid delivery of cancer-fighting drugs Feb. 15, 2007 A University of Wisconsin-Madison pharmacy professor aims to improve the delivery of cancer-fighting drugs by targeting them more selectively to tumors and boosting their solubility in water.