Issue
Eleven
The search for new drugs
If there is one thing we can be sure of, it is that the human population will continue to suffer from disease and that we will need new, smarter, more tailored drugs to treat them.This issue of Science Scotland focuses o…
Foreword Searching for new drugs If there is one thing we can be sure of, it is that the human population will continue to suffer from disease and that w...
More everything ... Sir Philip Cohen, the director of the MRC-PPU (the Medical Research Council Protein Phosphorylation Unit) and SCILLS (the SCottish Institute for ceL...
Phosphorylation and Ubiquitination? What are they?...
Experiments, experiements, experiments As well as having strong opinions on ubiquitination, Sir Philip also stresses that experiments are vital – and suggests the current emphasis o...
The reinvention of Dundee Sir Philip Cohen has played a major role in the emergence of Dundee as a major international centre for life sciences. As he himself puts it, the ci...
Learning lessons from Upstate In the mid-1990s, the MRC-PPU formed a close relationship with US-based biotechnology company Upstate, supplying reagents which Upstate sold to both a...
Blood on demand Within the next two decades, every hospital may be able to source blood for transfusions on demand, thanks to new techniques being developed in the Un...
Small molecules = big business Professor Andy Porter is one of Scotland's most successful scientists – and one of our most successful entrepreneurs. The co-founder of Haptoge...
Research focus Professor Andy Porter’s central research theme is the application of antibody engineering to the solution of both medical and environmental pr...
The 'hottest places' in biotechnology Professor Andy Porter uses his experience in business to identify promising biotech companies, via the angel investment firm set up by him and his p...
A new Golden Age of cell biology? Ten years ago, the sequencing of the human genome promised many medical advances but, according to Professor Angus Lamond, there are still many steps ...
An answer to cancer? Every day (or so it seems), the media announce another “cure” for the disease that kills an estimated eight million people a year. ...
Major Targets The Drug Discovery Programme at the Beatson Institute for Cancer Research has a number of targets including:...
City of drug discovery Dundee is called the “City of Discovery” in honour of the ship built in a local yard on Tayside, used by Captain Scott and Ernest Shackle...
Progress so far The DDU has already made some significant breakthroughs. In tropical diseases, it has delivered two series of lead compounds that could lead to new dr...
The rational lottery “Rational drug design” sounds like a perfectly sensible method in the quest to understand small molecules and proteins, and identify the ...
Rational Research Professor Malcolm Walkinshaw's Research Group at the University of Edinburgh focuses on two main areas: ...
Changing the subject Scientists today often do research in esoteric areas, but even though this may divide them in terms of their specialist knowledge, they need to work c...
Killer diseases Professor Graham Coombs has done research on the causative agent of various parasitic diseases, including leishmaniasis and trichomoniasis....
School of schools The motto of the Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Science (SIPBS) is: “New medicines, better medicines and better use of medicin...
Recent breakthroughs Among the Institute's recent achievements was the Life Science Innovation Award at the 2010 Nexxus Annual Life Science Awards, for a new technology d...
NEXT ISSUE Knowledge Transfer (KT) Engineering & IT The next issue of Science Scotland (to be published in winter 2011) will focus on knowl...