News Archive
August 2011
Road to dementia?
Severe head injuries, such as in road traffic accidents, have been known for many years to cause an accelerated form of dementia in the months and years after the initial injury has healed. But three new studies suggest that milder bumps on the head that affect millions every year might contribute to the development of Alzheimer's Disease decades later, providing a powerful new impetus to our ApoE mimetic drug discovery programme.
August 2011
Going against the grain
In his latest blog post, David Grainger considers why market forces are driving a greater and greater fraction of the available resources towards particular medical problems, such as cancer and rheumatoid arthritis, while others (such as sepsis and heart disease) are relatively ignored. This 'asset favouritism' is bad for patients and bad for healthcare investors alike. What is its origin? And what can be done about it?
January 2011
A new assay for furin
Our new assay for the activity of the proteolytic enzyme furin will appear in the 1st February issue of the Journal of Immunological Methods. By incorporating an immunocapture step the specificity of the assay has been considerably improved compared to current methods.
April 2011
Finding Safer Drugs
The demands for safer drugs has never been higher than it is today. The new reality is that drugs must offer more benefit than harm to every individual taking them, not just to society as whole. David Grainger explores what steps the pharma industry might take to deliver on these demands – including, paradoxically, a re-evaluation of how pre-clinical models of disease are used
May 2011
The Daily Mail View
On Tuesday 17th May the Daily Mail published a light-hearted look at unexpected associations with increased risk of heart disease, with comments from David Grainger. The piece confused association with causality, and risks causing unnecessary worry - highlighting the problem with the way the media presents such issues to the public.
March 2011
No pain, no inflame...
Through our collaboration with the Anaesthesia Department in Cambridge, we have shown that commonly used anaesthetic agents may induce similar pathways to our BSCIs, but acting through GABA receptors rather than somatostatin receptors. This in turn may explain the clinically-relevant anti-inflammatory or immunosuppressive properties of anaesthetics in the emergency room.
February 2011
Too much safety?
In a new blog post, David Grainger looks at the reasons behind the rapid decline in R&D spend across the pharmaceutical industry that culminated in Pfizer's recent decision to close its UK R&D site with 2,400 job losses. Rather than inefficiencies and lack of quality, could it be society's attitude to risk that lies behind the poor investment returns in pharmaceutical R&D?
August 2010
BHF Cardis Project
Man-made endocrine disrupting chemicals, such as Bisphenol A, have been linked to heartdisease risk. The Cardis project, funded by the British Heart Foundation aims to prove if this association is causal.
October 2010
Market Access Plannning
In his latest blog article, David Grainger considers the importance of market access planning for drug developers. It is no longer just an issue for big pharmaceutical companies. Even academics searching for new drugs need to realise that efficacy in clinical trials is no longer enough: products have to offer value for money as well.
July 2010
Gemma presents at GRC
On July 18th Gemma Bourne presented her work on TGF-beta processing in a Hot Topic talk at the Gordon Research Conference on Proprotein Processing, Trafficking & Secretion.
January 2010
FX125L Phase I complete
Funxional Therapeutics announced on 8th January that they have successfully complete Phase I development of our lead BSCI, FX125L. The compound was well tolerated at all doses tested, including the highest dose, 1500mg daily for 10 days.
April 2010
Apple, anyone?
For twenty years, its been public health policy to encourage people to eat more fruit and vegetables. But recent studies suggest the benefits are much less than expected. In his blog post, David Grainger considers the consequences for science-based public policymaking.
April 2010
Using Biomarkers
Everyone is talking about biomarkers - something easy to measure as a marker for something harder to measure - which form a major strand of research in the Graingerlab. David Mosedale reviews the wide range of applications that biomarkers can be used for.
January 2010
Valuing Ideas
Once upon a time, a good idea was worth a million pounds. Today, with ideas ten a penny, how can inventors of early stage technologies hope to earn a living? David Grainger explores the issues in his recent blog post.
November 2009
When Worlds Collide
Recent advances in both autoimmunity and atherosclerosis research increasingly highlight common mechanisms between the two disease areas. In a November editorial, we discuss the implications.
November 2009
Virtual Biotech
To be or not to be - that is the most pressing question for biotech companies today. In his recent blog article, David Grainger asks just how much out-sourcing is the right amount?
November 2009
Clinical Results Presented
Further details of the clinical experience with our lead BSCI, FX125L, was presented at the November meeting of the American College of Asthma, Allergy and Inflammation meeting in Miami, FL, USA.
July 2009
Harder Times for Biotech?
It's easy to think that the credit crunch is the only bad news for the biotech industry. But in a recent blog post, David Grainger explains why he thinks the problems run deeper than that. A radical change of approach may be needed.
July 2009
New BSCIs Published
Our latest research has been published in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry. Continuing optimization has now yielded a range of orally bioavailable Broad-spectrum Chemokine Inhibitors.
July 2009
FX125L Phase I Results
Funxional Therapeutics announced on 8th July 2009 that they have successfully complete the first Phase I clinical trial of FX125L in healthy volunteers. FX125L is our lead Broad-spectrum Chemokine Inhibitor, and this is the first experience with this new class of anti-inflammatory agents in man.
November 2008
Major expansion of BSCI Research
Our research into the mechanism of action of Broad-spectrum chemokine inhibitors (BSCIs) has received a major boost, with the announcement that local biotechnology company Funxional Therapeutics Ltd are to expand their collaboration with Cambridge University.
January 2008
Anna Kauppi awarded Fellowship to join Lab
Anna Kauppi, from the University of Umea, Sweden, has been awarded a Fellowship from the Wenner-Gren Foundation to join the lab from 5th February 2008. Anna will join the cadUK project, using multivariate modelling to evaluate different diagnostic paradigms from coronary heart disease.
January 2007
9th Annual Summer Studentships
The competition for the Eighth Annual Poniard / Cambridge University Biomedical Summer Studentships for 2008 is now open. The closing date for applications is 15th February 2008
January 2007
Funxional Therapeutics support BSCI research
Following the successful sub-licensing of our BSCI technology platform from the french pharmaceutical company Ipsen to a newly formed Cambridge biotechnology company, Funxional Therapeutics (FXT), in October of 2006, FXT have today announced their continued support for our BSCI research programme.
November 2003
Translational Research Unit opens at Papworth
The newly-formed Translational Research Unit, under the direction of Dr David Grainger, opened its doors in temporary accomodation at Papworth Hospital NHS Trust on 10th November 2003