Lars E Olsson: the workshop on biomedical imaging for drug discovery is a venture in a novel area
Lars E. Olsson is Professor of Medical Physics at Lund University, and member of the Biomedical Imaging working group.
Up to now synchrotron techniques have rarely been used in the latter stages of biomedical drug development and drug discovery processes. A novel educational workshop, organised by the Biomedical Imaging working group, as part of LINXS’ theme IPDD, aims to demonstrate the opportunities for developing new pharmaceuticals using synchrotron imaging.
– I see the use of synchrotron imaging as a method to turn to when you get stuck during a drug discovery and development process. To be able to see what is happening in high resolution during experiments with live animals can potentially add that extra bit of information you need, says Lars E. Olsson, Professor of Medical Physics at Lund University, and working group member.
Preparing for MedMax and introducing new avenues for researchers and pharmaceutical companies
He explains that the working group was motivated to organise the workshop since it is a way to begin preparations for the development of the future MedMAX beamline at MAX IV, which will be able to provide detailed analyses of tissue effects of pharmaceuticals. Because, so far synchrotron imaging techniques have been mainly used in the early stages of biomedical drug discovery processes, whereby you study the structure of compounds. In contrast, using synchrotrons for imaging live animals, opens up completely new avenues for both researchers and pharmaceutical companies.
Therefore, the workshop will take an educational focus and demonstrate the opportunities for biomedical applications using synchrotron imaging in the drug development pipeline, including imaging of tissue ex-vivo as well as in-vivo imaging. The process to develop new pharmaceuticals will be reviewed, with a focus on how biomedical imaging is currently used in this process.
Aim is to facilitate contacts and initiate discussions
First and foremost, Lars E Olsson hopes to engage the presence of a broad range of participants representing both academia and the pharmaceutical industry.
– Being a former member of the industry, I know that it can difficult to find your way into academic settings. This workshop is a step to facilitate contacts and initiate discussion.
Opportunities for synchrotron imaging need to be explored
Exactly how synchrotron imaging techniques will be able to facilitate decision making in drug development in preclinical models is still too early to say according to Lars E Olsson. However, that the techniques need to be explored more in detail is very clear.. At the same time, using synchrotron techniques can be quite cumbersome, and should therefore be used when it can really add extra benefit, and help solve tricky biomedical problems.
– The possibilities of using synchrotron imaging to ascertain pharmaceutical effects in live animals are intriguing since it allows us to really dive into how a new drug might be working, and tweak it accordingly. It is important to start getting networks and contacts together so that we are ready once MedMAX opens. The field of drug discovery is moving very fast, and here we have techniques that can yield novel information.
The workshop is open to researchers engaged in biomedical research, bioimaging or drug development in both academia and industry.
About the IPDD, theme
IPDD focuses on various aspects of pharmacology, going from structure-based drug design of both small molecules and macromolecular drugs to their interplay with tissue and its formulation. For this we will in particular investigate macromolecular drugs such as antibodies. The structure-function relationship of human drug target proteins and tissue will be explored both in vitro, ex vivo, and in vivo, utilizing X-rays at and neutrons.
Read more about the theme and its working groups