Human Tissues for Research: An annotated bibliography

Drug companies rely on the research on human tissues to aid in the process of finding what drugs they can or cannot use. This is how these companies make the decision if whether or not a drug is safe. It helps them find specific molecules which can play a very important role in curing illnesses or diseases. This would be a really good break through and if people did not let people do research on their tissues then these advancements would be impossible. Without these advancements then human’s would not have the life expectancy that we do today.

　

　

　

Human Tissues for Research

Drug discovery companies focused on molecular targeted therapies face challenges in building state-of-the-art programs geared towards the identification of specific molecules (lipids, proteins, enzymes, etc.) which may play critical roles in governing human diseases, such as

cancer, diabetes, asthma and rheumatoid arthritis, thereby providing rational molecular targets for therapeutic intervention. As a starting point, a drug discovery platform may identify targets using advanced genomics techniques and bioinformatics capabilities. Once targets are validated in relevant in vitro and in vivo disease models, lead drug candidates, obtained by target-driven screening, may be optimized using crystallography and computational chemistry.

Human specimen acquisition is now a critical step for research activities involved in target validation, drug discovery and clinical development. Using human tissues for research, e.g. for molecular target expression/activation, can provide key data from early stage discovery through preclinical research, drug safety evaluation, biomarker development, patient pre-selection and entry of novel compounds into the clinic. At the gene and protein expression level, human tissues can be used to identify specific molecular entities involved in human disease (e.g. in cancer, those regulating tumor growth, metastasis, drug resistance). Along with preclinical development work on the mechanism of action for lead compounds, the information obtained from studies with human specimens greatly facilitates the design of early phase clinical trials, assisting in the identification of the patient population that would most likely benefit from the targeted experimental medicine.

To enable decision-making that potentially could reduce attrition and save millions of dollars in the drug development process, examination of a broad range of human specimens of diverse origin, with substantial specimen numbers from each category, is key.

Fully appreciating the value and scarcity of human clinically-defined specimens, experienced scientists involved in the establishment of the human biorepository at SUGEN, Inc., developed multi-site collaborations and protocols for obtaining, handling and processing human specimens, ensuring reproducible and reliable results.

Our goal is the advancement of drug discovery, development and commercialization activities, ultimately improving the outcome for patients. We offer implementation of custom human tissue acquisition projects, biosample management for early stage clinical research and diagnostics development, and human tissue research services.

　

　

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