Invent: Life Sciences

From cosmetics to medicines, animal testing is still widely mandated by regulators. Up to now, there have been few other ways to gather information about the potential human response to drug candidates. But are animal models still the most effective way to test drugs before we use them in humans? Or are these in vivo models outdated, ready to be replaced by innovative new in vitro models of drug d...

The hunt to discover new pharmaceuticals in areas of high unmet need can be complex, time-consuming, and costly. For every life saving therapy that hits the market, thousands and even millions of candidate drugs are rejected. A new technology could be changing the way we home in on the most effective therapy: AI. The use of AI in drug discovery - whether through mining research or in highlighting...

What is the potential of synthetic biology? A chance to create life-changing therapies by speaking cells’ very own language? Or could rogue researchers use it to turn our own biology against us? Since synthetic biology emerged as a field, the aspirations for its benefits have been as speculative as the concerns about its misuse, making one of the most fascinating and divisive fields in life scienc...

When the first human genome was sequenced, the whole project was estimated to have cost some 3 billion dollars and took over 13 years. Now, with massively parallel Next Generation Sequencing it is possible to sequence the human genome in less than 24 hours at a cost of under $1,000. With a rapid decline in sequencing costs, both the number of applications and the amount of data produced have boome...

Following our thrilling first series of Invent all about health technology, the team at TTP are back with a new series all about the Life Sciences, to explore the impact of biology and technology on the life sciences sector. Life sciences are often referred to as the Fourth Industrial Revolution, deploying biology and technology in real-world applications to transform medicine, diagnostics, and ul...