DrugSIMS White Paper – Visualizing Subcellular Drug Targets

No matter how well a new drug is designed, it’s a failure if it can’t reach its target.

But conventional methods to visualize pharmacokinetics inside the cell too often prove unsatisfactory. In particular, when attempting to accurately determine drug exposure, traditional plasma concentration measurements fall short.

Recently, a research incubator group embedded within AstraZeneca’s BioVentureHub tried a new approach. The scientists applied advanced imaging instrumentation within a specialized workflow, creating a proven new solution for quantifying subcellular drug concentrations: DrugSIMS™.

Key to DrugSIMS’s ability to visualize activities within a cell’s “black box” was the hub’s CAMECA NanoSIMS 50L secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) instrument, which images and measures elemental and isotopic distribution with great sensitivity and ultra-high spatial resolution. So drugs and nanoparticles can finally be accurately localized and quantified at an organelle level.

This unique capability may be accessed by researchers worldwide on a contract basis.  And consider the critical advantage DrugSIMS might provide within your drug discovery process.