Lighting up the darkness

Launch of luminous drug discovery technology

LUX Biotechnology has launched a drug discovery technology based on moulds that glow in the dark. The moulds are used in innovative drug discovery assays and glow under test conditions. The level and pattern of light emitted from these assays relate to the specific biological activity in the test sample.

The company believes its new assays provide a screening method that will accelerate the discovery of new medicines and may even reduce the reliance of the pharmaceutical industry on animal testing.

Dr Patrick Hickey, the chief technology officer of LUX, said many naturally occurring organisms glow, but only when they are alive. The degree of luminescence can be an accurate measure of their health.

"We can now engineer these fungi to glow in response to different drugs and pollutants," Dr Hickey said. "You add the drug and then watch out for a distinctive change in the light output."

The patented moulds are similar at a basic cellular level to animals so they are an ideal testing ground. "The results from our tests are rapid, accurate and offer an alternative to animal testing methods," Hickey added.

The LUX mould system has many unique advantages, which enable the testing of thousands of samples quickly and efficiently. Dr Artin Moussavi, the chief executive of LUX, said the fact that LUX use whole organisms in their drug screens rather than cells or molecules improves the potential to gain more accurate information.

LUX is about to put its screening technology to good use in the search for new drug candidates. The company will screen thousands of potential new drugs for the treatment of neurological disorders, heart disease and fungal infections such as thrush and apsergillosis.

Food safety is another potential area with the food industry needing to test additives and colourings for harmful effects. Batches of food or drink believed to be contaminated by toxic substances can also be tested.

Friendly bacteria battle ulcerative colitis

University of Dundee researchers have developed a treatment offering new therapies for the management of ulcerative colitis.

Results from a four-week patient trial led by Professor George Macfarlane showed that many of the patients' symptoms were dramatically reduced to near normal levels.

After studying the bowel wall of colitis patients and healthy volunteers, the team made an important discovery. The levels of a specific type of friendly bacteria were 30 times less in colitis patients than in healthy people.

As a result, Professor Macfarlane and his team developed a probiotic, which together with a carbohydrate source forms a 'synbiotic'. This was given to the colitis patients as a substitute for the anti-inflammatory effects that the naturally occurring friendly bacteria offer to healthy people. In a four-week trial with active ulcerative colitis patients, the researchers monitored the effect of the synbiotic.

The trial results were dramatic, showing that the synbiotic had a highly significant effect on inflammatory molecules in the bowel wall, largely reducing the pain and discomfort commonly experienced by ulcerative colitis patients.

Molecular and clinical tests showed that many symptoms associated with colitis were reduced to near normal levels, and unlike many other treatments, there are no side effects.

Heriot-Watt student tricks bacteria

A Scottish student may have discovered a way to beat deadly bacterial infections such as the MRSA superbug using slime.

Heriot-Watt University graduate Charlotte Hamilton believes she has found a way to trick bacteria resistant to antibiotics into weakening their first line of defence. Her studies are part of an on-going research project at Edinburgh's Heriot-Watt University at the laboratories of Dr Grant Burgess.

Miss Hamilton thinks her findings could one day help to tackle MRSA and other bacterial infections.

She was studying a protective slime surrounding bacteria, known as biofilm, which prevents antibiotics from reaching the organism. Despite working on a budget of just 100, she discovered that bacteria are able to release compounds, which disperse the slime of rival bacteria.

Miss Hamilton said: "The results are very significant because they suggest a new strategy for the treatment of infection. I have not discovered a new antibiotic, but this is a novel way of dispersing biofilms which could effectively weaken a bacteria. It's remarkably clever in the way it knows to disperse in the presence of competition."

Molecules could mean fast-healing wounds

Dundee scientists have discovered three new molecules which could spell much faster and more efficient healing of wounds.

Professor Seth and Dr Ana Schor, former Scottish innovators of the year, have discovered three novel molecules which appear to have significant clinical potential in the treatment of wound healing. Their laboratory-based data reveal that the molecules stimulate fibroblast migration and angiogenesis and should therefore promote wound healing.

Their work aims to determine if these compounds can elicit the desired effect on wound repair, both alone and in combination with a range of commercially available dermal matrices.

The University has patents protecting two of the molecules named MSF and IGD.

University spin-out company wins top business award

A University of Glasgow spin-out company "Diagnostic Potentials Ltd" has received an innovation award from the Scottish Council for Development and Industry (SCDI) for its pioneering work to improve the diagnosis of people suffering from Alzheimer's disease.

The company was set up by Dr Kerry Kilborn and colleagues at the Department of Psychology at the University of Glasgow in 1999. The team has successfully developed medical technology that helps with the early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease for which it has won the Pfizer Award for Innovation in Life Sciences.

Dr Kilborn said, "We are pleased that SCDI and Pfizer have recognised the company's work on the early detection of Alzheimer's disease. We welcome the contribution this recognition makes toward raising awareness of the need to pursue research and development on all fronts to combat this devastating disease."

Alzheimers disease affects 18 million people worldwide and this year claimed one of Scotland's favourite entertainers, Rikki Fulton. Central Nervous System (CNS) disorders, such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, schizophrenia, and others, represent more than 15% of the global cost for disease. Costs of over $100 billion per annum makes Alzheimer's the third most expensive disease in the USA. Advances in drug treatments are creating opportunities to reduce the suffering and cost associated with CNS disorders. The key to exploiting these opportunities, both for clinical care providers and for drug companies, is early and accurate diagnosis.