Handled with Care

摘要

With the shift from small molecule drug discovery towards biopharma, storing and processing biological materials has become more crucial than ever. Lab technology needs to adapt to meet the growing challenges of sample integrity, chain of custody and human safety challenges. A little over a decade ago the drug development activities of most major pharmaceutical companies were focused around small molecule drug discovery (SMDD); today, however, the situation is very different. Drug discovery has become much more 'industrialised', with the widespread use of automation and robotics. At the same time, drug discovery is bringing different technologies to the fore, with the storage and processing of biological materials becoming increasingly important when attempting to understand disease causes and treatment.