Drug Discovery and Evaluation

The rapid progress in biology will continue to change the methodological approach to drug discovery in the coming years. Electronic media will continuously help researchers to access and share information. It is, however, becoming more and more evident that many young pharmacologists have only limited training in classical pharmacological methodologies. These long-standing and still highly relevant methods are simply not available in the electronic databases. Drug Discovery and Evaluation:Pharmacological Assays bridges this gap by comprehensively covering the pharmacological methods that have been utilized successfully for more than a hundred years as well as the latest technologies.The classical methods and the newest technologies, all in one book!The 3rd edition of this successful reference book contains an updated selection of the most frequently used assays for reliably detecting the pharmacological effects of potential drugs. Effects covered include cardiovascular, analgesic, endocrine, psychotropic, respiratory, renal, and immunomodulatory activities. Each of the more than 1000 assays comprises a detailed protocol outlining the purpose and rationale of the method, a critical assessment of the results and their pharmacological and clinical relevance. In addition, animal models of rare diseases are described.For this third edition, all existing chapters have been revised and completely updated. A large number of assays were added: we are now publishing two volumes. Sections that have been specifically enlarged include - Pharmacological assays in thrombosis and haemostasis (formerly called activity of blood constituents),- Antidiabetic activity (includes completely new chapters such as Biochemical Methods in Diabetology), - Anti-atherosclerotic activity.