Increased usage of key protein research techniques

The utilisation of protein research techniques such as Elisa and Western blot by drug discovery researchers has increased from 45 to 59 percent and from 46 to 58 percent respectively from 2002 to 2006

"The increased utilisation of these two techniques over the past four years is perhaps due in part to improvements involving capillaries to speed testing and the trend to associate basic protein techniques with complementary separation techniques such as liquid chromatography," remarks Tamara Zemlo, executive director of the Science Advisory Board.

The Science Advisory Board recently released its latest report, The tools and techniques of drug discovery Vol 2.

This report is based on the responses of 611 drug discovery researchers who completed a questionnaire fielded by the Science Advisory Board between 19 and 30 June 2006 and includes a comparison to results found in the Volume 1 report, published in 2002.

This study presents baseline data on the utilization of various tools and techniques within the scope of drug discovery research with a specific focus on real-time PCR, DNA microarrays and RNAi.

The report examines at nucleic acid research techniques, protein research techniques, and cell-based techniques, as well as a comparison of the top ten techniques utilized by researchers in 2002 and 2006 and a breakdown of researchers who currently perform real-time PCR, DNA microarrays, and RNAi.

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