-
UKQSAR and ChemoInformatics Group Autumn 2011
The UKQSAR and ChemoInformatics Group Autumn 2011 Meeting, jointly hosted by Accelrys and Astex, will be held on Thursday November 3rd at the Accelrys European Headquarters in Cambridge.
Details of the one day meeting can be found here. Looks a great meeting. -
USAN Watch - October 2011
The USANs for October 2011 have just been published.
USAN Research Code Structure Drug Class Therapeutic class Target blosozumab LY-2541546 mAb therapeutic Sclerostin cerlapirdine, cerlapirdine hydrochloride SAM-531, PF-5212365 
synthetic small molecule therapeutic dexmecamylamine, dexmecamylamine hydrochloride TC-5214 
synthetic small molecule therapeutic nAChR evabotulinumtoxinA enzyme therapeutic regorafenib BAY-73-4506 
synthetic small molecule therapeutic KIT PDGFR RAF RET safinamide, safinamide mesylate EMD-1195686 
synthetic small molecule therapeutic -
Are You Ready For Movember?
We are. -
EMBL and Russian Foundation for Basic Research call for Proposals
On 1 October 2011, EMBL and the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR) issued a call for joint projects. The 2012 call for financial support for a basic research project covers the following priority areas:
- Structural biology
- Genomics
- Biomolecular chemistry
- Cell biology/imaging
- Technology development XFEL life science
- High-performance computing
-
Conference: Bioinformatics for Anti-Cancer Drug Discovery
There is a conference that we are presenting some new ChEMBL work and analysis at, and also there is a talk on CanSAR. The conference is at Bilkent University, in Ankara, Turkey. Dates are fairly soon though - 17th and 18th October 2011, but there is still time to submit an abstract - I wish more conferences were like this, in not having a big gap between the conference and any deadlines for submission.
The conference website is http://www.i-cancer.org/bioinformatics2011.
As an aside, I hadn't linked Ankara in Turkey before to the word Angora (Angora is an old name for Ankara), so this is the place responsible for the Angora goat, rabbit and cat!
-
Lipinski Seminar - Cancelled
Unfortunately Chris has cancelled his entire UK trip next week, due to a patent case being heard in the States that he is involved with. Subsequently his seminar on campus next week is also cancelled.
-
Opinion: The Inventive and Creative Industries - Patents and Copyright
Modern Drug Discovery is tough - too tough and expensive for many to actually stay the course.
In response to the painfully low innovation, productivity and return on investment from both private and public sectors, are a number of visionary programs and initiatives, attempting to change the dynamics, economics and participants in drug discovery - an example, in the US, is the NIH initiative to speed translational science from lab to clinic - NCATS. However, at times of pressure on research budgets, the community support and smooth progress of such actions are far from certain.
Other ways of lowering overall healthcare costs and/or incentivising innovation/investment are actively being explored. One central element is that of patent life - some argue for it to be longer (typically companies who wish to preserve their monopolies) and others argue for it to be shorter (patient groups/healthcare providers who wish to benefit from the low prices of generic medicines). In the US there are recent proposals to shorten patent coverage on drugs - this could save a lot of money (or at least can readily be explained in a way that appears to), but will it really provide the incentives for investment in new pharmaceuticals? When launched under a shorter exclusivity period the prices will naturally become higher in order to 1) recoup R&D costs or 2) provide satisfactory returns for investors (delete one of these dependent on your particular viewpoint!) over the shorter period. This 'naturally' higher price, and then the drop in prices as a drug becomes generic will appear to make it appear that drug companies are gouging consumers/patients even more!
It really is a lose-lose position for all sides, but there is a significant risk that patients (you, me and our families) with horrible diseases like Alzheimer's, stroke and cancer will pay the ultimate price, as we inadvertently kill the goose that lays the golden egg.
In very sharp contrast to the pressures to reduce the commercial protection of drugs (from 12 to 7 years in the US) are recent changes to the protection of copyright material. Commercial protection will extend from 50 to 70 years in Europe - otherwise many profitable works from The Beatles/The Who/The Rolling Stones would have entered the public domain, and the artists would potentially fall on hard times. The other odd thing about 'creative works' compared to 'inventive works' is how the families/estates of creative artists can somehow inherit these rights. There is a pretty ironic quote from Mick Jagger in the BBC news article referenced above.
"[The royalties] can extend their lives and the lives of their families who inherit their songs."
Don't get me wrong, I love creative works, I love recorded music. I have amassed a large collection of physical media that I regularly listen to. I love cheesy and serious artistes from the 1980's - they are as much part of my everyday life as statins and aspirin (and even more than Cigarettes and Alcohol); but honestly, are the efforts of scientists and engineers really worth less than those of a guitarist or lyricist (and the interests of the multinational conglomerates that employ them)? It is surprising, to me, that regulators/governments etc. are prepared to extend copyright (and other associated forms of commercial protection) to 'creative works' that have little tangible benefit to society - Lady Gaga or Imatinib?
Why is there a fundamentally different perception by both the public and governments of these two vested interest groups? Why is the lobbying of the creative industry so much more effective than that of the inventive industries? What can scientists, inventors, and entrepreneurs learn from the lobbying of performance artists? Why are there no longer any cool TV shows?
Note 1: For the non-UK residents, the picture above is of Cliff Richard, a 'mature' popular music star, at the forefront of efforts to extend copyright.
Note 2: To be clear, the views expressed above are my personal views, and do not reflect those of my employer. -
Recruitment - Data Warehouse Developers for a new grant
We have recently completed the legal formalities for an exciting collaborative grant involving the development of a service infrastructure for data from EU-funded research into non-animal tests for predicting chemical safety. - the grant is called DiXa. We are currently recruiting two positions for this grant (and there will be some additional posts later). These will be in the group of Ugis Sarkans at the EBI.
Further details on the positions can be found here.
