Drug Discovery - InVivo Biosystems

Drug Repurposing for Neurological Disorders

Drug Discovery / By Alexandra Narin / October 20, 2021 October 22, 2021

Neurological disorders are extremely widespread, affecting over 1 billion people worldwide, and have debilitating effects, impacting the brain, spinal cord, cranial nerves, and peripheral nerves. Despite this, many neurological disorders lack effective treatment. One strategy that offers an attractive way to find better therapies is drug repurposing. Also known as drug reprofiling or drug repositioning, drug repurposing identifies new purposes for pre-existing compounds, and offers reduced time frames, decreased costs, and improved success rates. While drug repurposing for neurological disorders has gained attention in the past decade, it is still an underused approach. In this article we will discuss drug repurposing, its benefits, its place in neurological drug research, and its recent success.

FDA versus FTC Approval – What is the Difference?

Drug Discovery / By Alexandra Narin / October 15, 2021 October 15, 2021

In this article we aim to clarify the intent behind these therapies and what their labelling means by asking: Why aren’t nutraceutical products FDA approved? How do FDA and FTC approvals compare? And — how should you market your product? What legal issues do both tracks pose?

HIV, COVID-19, Alzheimer’s: The Impact of The FDA’s Expedited Programs and What’s Next

Drug Discovery / By Alexandra Narin / August 26, 2021 August 26, 2021

The FDA’s emergency use authorization (EUA) of the COVID-19 vaccines has brought the approval process of vaccines and drugs into public consciousness, however, the FDA’s ability to streamline medical products is not new. In this article we will discuss the history of the drug development pipeline, and ways it can be improved.

How Can a Drug Get to Market Faster? Explaining the FDA’s Expedited Drug Tracks

Drug Discovery / By Alexandra Narin / August 17, 2021 August 17, 2021

Getting a drug to market is notoriously difficult, taking 7-10 years and costing hundreds of millions of dollars. This, coupled with the Covid-19 pandemic’s impact on clinical trials, may make you wonder whether your drug is eligible for an expedited track. In this article we will discuss the current ways of expediting drugs, and which is best for your research.

New Alzheimer’s Drug: Helpful or Just Expedient?

Drug Discovery / By Alexandra Narin / August 13, 2021 August 13, 2021

Aducanumab has been plagued with controversy since it was announced. We take a look to see if it is helpful, or just expedient.

Rising Healthcare Costs? Non-Mammalian Models to the Rescue

Disease Modeling, Drug Discovery / By Alexandra Narin / August 11, 2021 August 17, 2021

Rising healthcare costs mean it’s time for pharmaceutical companies to use non-mammalian models in their drug development process — by saving time and money pharmaceutical companies can make a return on their products without sky-high prices for consumers.

The Application of Hypersensitivity Assays to the Discovery of Therapeutics

Disease Modeling, Drug Discovery / By Chris Hopkins / June 14, 2021 June 18, 2021

Using Humanization we can take advantage of the ancient biology between humans and other organisms to create stand-ins – patient avatars – for drug screening studies. In this blog, we will focus on models of inborn errors of metabolism (IEM), as these genetic conditions can lead to hypersensitivity to the metabolite. Since stressor condition hypersensitivity can be used to detect favorable drug effects, IEM model systems are ideal tools for phenotypic screens to find molecules that alleviate the metabolic stress occurring from the deficiency. We discuss the model organisms used in hypersensitivity screens, and why they are advantageous to drug discovery. Ultimately, showcasing this approach’s potential to be widely generalized to many genetic disorders.

Let’s Fail Faster: Why Scientific Failures Should be Accepted as Progress

CRISPR, Drug Discovery / By Alexandra Narin / June 9, 2021 June 11, 2021

In the scientific community there is an emphasis on positive results: getting published, having a drug be approved, etc. However, crucial learning happens when experiments don’t work – in fact, these “failures” may be some of the most important learning experiences. In this article we discuss the need to shift the focus from failing less, to failing faster and some of the resources available to researchers so they can expedite their own work.

The Path to Affordable Therapeutics in Rare Disease – Tackling Congenital Disorder of Glycosylation in the PMM2 gene.

Drug Discovery / By Hannah Huston, Alexandra Narin and Chris Hopkins / April 28, 2021 May 17, 2021

Rare diseases are just that: rare. However, when combined rare diseases affect 3.5% – 5.9% of the worldwide population, and present a growing healthcare issue. In this article we talk with Dr Sangetha lyer about her work at the biotech Perlara and highlight their recent successes in a drug repurposing campaign for PMM2-CDG.

The DrugAge Database: showcasing C. elegans in longevity research

Aging & Healthspan, Drug Discovery / By Alexandra Narin and Trisha Brock / April 22, 2021 April 26, 2021

Learn more about the DrugAge Database which highlights the high translational value of C. elegans as a model organism, and shows how valuable they can be as a tool for identifying novel drugs and drug targets in longevity research.