Singapore Polytechnic Workshop

Last Friday, the Life Science Society went to Singapore Polytechnic for a workshop. The Sec 2 and 3s went on a workshop talking about enzymes whereas the Sec 4s went to a workshop on how drugs are discovered. Here are the details on the Sec 4's workshop.

First of all, there was a brief introduction to the subject of how drugs are discovered. With the old and emerging life-threatening or chronic diseases affecting many in Singapore, there is a need for new drug development. This is done in order to improve the quality of life among patients. So, where do these drugs come from? They can be derived from plants, animals, microbes, and marine life. However, the process does not end there as there is a long tedious process to follow, especially with safety checks being a part of creating a new drug.

General parameters of looking for new drugs include 1 in 10000 chemicals that are screened contains a new drug product. This drug has to be developed for 12 years before it can be used. Thus, many drugs for particular diseases are not researched as there is a lack of profitability, due to the high cost. However, a lot of drugs that are made come from plants, taking up 25% of the total.

Now, there are many future prospects in the look for the new drug. First of all, the use of microbes is providing massive opportunities in finding new medicines. Also, technology has become much more advanced, and there is more knowledge that can be used to discover more drugs. This field of biotechnology remains a big one due to the many simple questions that scientists ask being unanswered.

To detect chemicals in a herb, a liquid chromatography-mass spectrometer (LC-MS) is used by detecting the mass of the certain chemical that you are looking for. Using this sophisticated equipment, scientists are able to find chemicals that may be the new drug to cure a disease. Lastly, as the use of a drug continuously causes diseases to form immunity against such drugs, it is thus important that research is emphasized on this particular field of biotechnology.