Teaching statistical thinking to life scientists a case-based approach.

We describe a workshop on statistical thinking for scientists involved in pharmaceutical discovery research. The objectives were 1) to improve the quality of research data by developing a structured approach to bias and variability and 2) to establish a collaborative and informed relationship between scientists and statisticians by broadening their common basis. The corner stone was the introduction of statistical thinking and the didactical route to achieve this goal.

Pyrrolo[1,2-a][1,4]benzodiazepine: a novel class of non-azole anti-dermatophyte anti-fungal agents.

Broad screening revealed compound 1a to be a novel anti-fungal agent with high specificity towards dermatophytes. The anti-fungal structure-activity relationship of this novel class of 5,6-dihydro-4H-pyrrolo[1,2-a][1,4]benzodiazepines is described together with its mode of action that appeared to be the inhibition of squalene epoxidase. Preliminary in vivo results of the most active compounds are also reported.

A diarylquinoline drug active on the ATP synthase of Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

The incidence of tuberculosis has been increasing substantially on a worldwide basis over the past decade, but no tuberculosis-specific drugs have been discovered in 40 years. We identified a diarylquinoline, R207910, that potently inhibits both drug-sensitive and drug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis in vitro (minimum inhibitory concentration 0.06 mug/ml).