Synopsis - Cell Systems for Drug Discovery

Obtaining phenotypically relevant human cell systems for drug discovery has been limiting for compound screening.  While recombinantly expressed targets and stable cell lines have served us well, it has long been argued that the quality of information obtained would be richer if primary cells in a native tissue environment could be studied in their place.   The advent of obtaining and utilising human cells to mimic disease systems is becoming increasingly prevalent. This coupled with techniques in deriving cell lines from induced pluripotent human stem cells or embryonic stem cells has enhanced our ability to study human disease. This session brings together a series of presentations which highlight advances in generating model systems derived from human cells including stem cell derivation of new cell lines,  generation of cells direct from human tissue for three-dimensional modelling and screening against phenotypically relevant cell lines.  Examples will be presented of the use of these systems to further our knowledge of how compounds behave in more disease relevant environments.

Katy Gearing

Mike Jowett