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advancing-medical-research
3-D Molecules Move into the Fast Lane
Seeing compounds in three dimensions clears a path for making medicines faster, better. Understanding how medicines behave around human cells was once a matter of educated guesswork, in large part because how they act at the molecular level isn’t visible. But today, structural biology and computational chemistry – or the use of computer modeling and molecular dynamics simulation – take medicine design into the next dimension. Well, to be precise, the third dimension. With the jump into 3...
How Human 'Gene Knockouts' Are Pointing the Way to New Medicines
As more people sequence their genomes, scientists are studying genetic mutations in hopes of identifying new treatments. Since the human genome was first sequenced 15 years ago, the field of genetic research has exploded, according to Morten Sogaard, vice president and head of Genome Sciences & Technologies at Pfizer, who also oversees Human Genetics, Computational Biomedicine, Computational Target Validation and Diagnostics research. “Drug discovery has always been painstaking, in large...
Tapping Coding Virtuosos to Solve Research Challenges
Medical researchers turn to crowdsourcing in the coding community to crack DNA data challenges. In 2014, a team of Pfizer scientists faced a data bottleneck. While conducting a study to find genetic variations that could increase a person’s risk of developing Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) — a group of lung diseases that includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis — they collected millions of data points. With their best available software at the time, it took up to ten hours...
Scientists Mimic Human Organs on Microscopic ‘Chips’ That Enable Drug Testing
*/ /*-->*/ /*-->*/ By mimicking the way organs operate in the body, the organ-on-a-chip can offer a more...
Diagnosing Disease by Voice
Detecting the occurrence of many diseases can be challenging without a blood test or other reliable screening tool. So researchers are now listening for the sounds of disease. Speech is a complex process that requires coordination with our brain, muscles, and respiratory system. Recent research shows that subtle changes in speech, for example slurring or vocal cord tremors, may be early signs of disease or illness like Parkinson’s disease, depression, cardiac problems, and concussion. Peop...
How Virtual Reality Takes Scientists Inside New Molecules (video)
A walk-in 3-D cube lets scientists explore the human body, its organs, and even the tiniest of cells. From video games to immersive documentaries, virtual reality is beginning to transform the consumer media and entertainment experience. But it’s poised to improve the way scientist discover new medicines as well. At Pfizer’s Research & Development hub in Cambridge, Mass., chemists, neuroscientists and other researchers use 3D VisBox technology to visualize and virtually explore the human body...
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