Drug Discovery@nature.com 23 March 2012

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Full Text Hedgehog hopes lifted by approval... and stung by failure doi:10.1038/nbt0312-203 As Curis/Genentech's Erivedge (vismodegib), a Hedgehog pathway inhibitor, received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of basal cell carcinoma, Infinity announced a lack of efficacy with saridegib for pancreatic cancer. Full Text Small biotechs raring to cash in on the orphan disease market doi:10.1038/nm0312-330 A profile of five small companies that are focused primarily on the rare-disease market and have products either on the market or in late-stage development. Full Text Analysis Top Keeping up with the nanopores doi:10.1038/scibx.2012.271 A team at the University of California, Santa Cruz has discovered a way to improve the accuracy of nanopore sequencing while retaining its speed. Oxford Nanopore Technologies Ltd. has licensed the technology and is incorporating it into its nanopore sequencing platforms. Full Text Fresh from the Pipeline: Tafamidis doi:10.1038/nrd3675 In November 2011, the first-in-class drug tafamidis (Vyndaqel; Pfizer), which inhibits protein misfolding, was approved in Europe for the treatment of familial amyloid polyneuropathy. Full Text From the analyst's couch: Maximizing the value of diagnostics in Alzheimer's disease drug development doi:10.1038/nrd3535 This article examines strategic issues faced by pharmaceutical companies relating to the development of biomarkers and diagnostics for Alzheimer's disease. Full Text Research Highlights Top Neurodegenerative disease: Harnessing virus-mediated mitochondrial protection to combat neurodegeneration doi:10.1038/nrd3688 A novel therapeutic strategy could have important implications for the treatment of Parkinson's disease and other neurodegenerative diseases involving impaired mitochondrial function. Full Text Anticancer drugs: Targeting menin doi:10.1038/nrd3689 Inhibitors that target the interaction between menin and MLL could be useful for the treatment of acute lymphocytic leukaemia. Full Text Angiogenesis: Scheduled delivery doi:10.1038/nrc3232 Angiogenesis inhibitors may not provide clinical benefit by normalizing blood vessels and thereby increasing the delivery of chemotherapy, as has been hypothesized. Full Text Research & Reviews Top Diagnosing the decline in pharmaceutical R&D efficiency doi:10.1038/nrd3681 The authors of this Perspectives article discuss four factors that they consider to contribute significantly to the decline in pharmaceutical R&D efficiency. Full Text The insulin and insulin-like growth factor receptor family in neoplasia: an update doi:10.1038/nrc3215 Possible reasons for the disappointing outcomes of Phase III clinical trials for therapies targeting the insulin and insulin-like growth factor I receptor family, potential next steps and relevance to other areas of drug development in oncology are the subject of this Review. Full Text Family-wide chemical profiling and structural analysis of PARP and tankyrase inhibitors doi:10.1038/nbt.2121 PARP inhibitors have recently entered Phase III clinical trials as cancer therapeutics, but the specificity of many of these compounds is unknown. Wahlberg et al. used biochemical approaches to show that most PARP inhibitors target multiple PARP family members. Full Text Activin-like kinase 3 is important for kidney regeneration and reversal of fibrosis doi:10.1038/nm.2629 Raghu Kalluri and colleagues have identified an orally available, small-peptide agonist of activin-like kinase 3, the key co-receptor for BMP7 in the kidney, that reduces established fibrosis in animal models of kidney injury. Full Text Drug Discovery JOBS of the week Professor in sociological alcohol and drug research Stockholm University Novel computational methods for drug discovery University of Southampton Global Project Manager � Drug Development CTC Clinical Trial Consulting Drug Saftey Coordinator Job Yoh Scientist Drug Metabolism Pharmokinetics Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd More Science jobs from Drug Discovery EVENT 5th Diabetes Drug Discovery & Development 19.-20.04.12 Boston, MA More science events from Careers Top Career snapshots archive Career snapshots feature people associated with drug discovery and drug development, with the aim of providing expert insights and advice on a wide range of positions and career paths in this field. Full Text Top Advertisement SciBX: Science-Business eXchange is a weekly publication that identifies and analyzes the most important translational research articles from over 40 journals. 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