Designing and implementing an educational framework for advanced paramedic practitioners rotating into primary care in North Wales.

Background: Rotational working has been offered as a solution to bridge the retention crises faced by ambulance services in the United Kingdom due to the inception of paramedics working in primary care. One project in North Wales examines the viability of rotating Advanced Paramedic Practitioners employed by Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust into primary care. As part of this project, an educational framework was developed to prepare and support Advanced Paramedic Practitioners in the provision of clinical care in primary care settings.

Crystal structures of ASK1-inhibtor complexes provide a platform for structure-based drug design.

ASK1, a member of the MAPK Kinase Kinase family of proteins has been shown to play a key role in cancer, neurodegeneration and cardiovascular diseases and is emerging as a possible drug target. Here we describe a 'replacement-soaking' method that has enabled the high-throughput X-ray structure determination of ASK1/ligand complexes. Comparison of the X-ray structures of five ASK1/ligand complexes from 3 different chemotypes illustrates that the ASK1 ATP binding site is able to accommodate a range of chemical diversity and different binding modes.

Lead discovery for microsomal prostaglandin E synthase using a combination of high-throughput fluorescent-based assays and RapidFire mass spectrometry.

Microsomal prostaglandin E synthase-1 (mPGES-1) represents an attractive target for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and pain, being upregulated in response to inflammatory stimuli. Biochemical assays for prostaglandin E synthase activity are complicated by the instability of the substrate (PGH(2)) and the challenge of detection of the product (PGE(2)). A coupled fluorescent assay is described for mPGES-1 where PGH(2) is generated in situ using the action of cyclooxygenase 2 (Cox-2) on arachidonic acid.

Configuration of a high-content imaging platform for hit identification and pharmacological assessment of JMJD3 demethylase enzyme inhibitors.

The biological complexity associated with the regulation of histone demethylases makes it desirable to configure a cellular mechanistic assay format that simultaneously encompasses as many of the relevant cellular processes as possible. In this report, the authors describe the configuration of a JMJD3 high-content cellular mechanistic imaging assay that uses single-cell multiparameter measurements to accurately assess cellular viability and the enzyme-dependent demethylation of the H3K27(Me)3 mark by exogenously expressed JMJD3. This approach couples robust statistical analyses with the spatial resolving power of cellular imaging.