Words we use.
Medicine has a lot of its own words. Here is what we mean by each one, in plain English.
- Science
- Trials
- Safety
A1 term
- Adverse event
- Any unwanted medical event in a person taking part in a study or taking a medicine, whether or not the medicine caused it. In everyday use, a side effect is an adverse event the medicine is suspected to have caused.
Safety
B1 term
- Biologic
- A medicine made from living cells, such as an antibody, rather than built by chemistry.
Science
C3 terms
- Catalytic
- Able to act again and again without being used up. In laboratory studies, one degrader molecule can lead to the removal of many copies of a protein.
Science - Cohort
- A group of people in a study who start at the same time or get the same dose.
Trials - Cryo-EM
- Cryo-electron microscopy. Proteins are frozen so fast that the water around them turns solid without forming ice crystals, then imaged with electrons to work out their 3D shape.
Science
D2 terms
- Degrader
- A molecule designed to help the cell remove a harmful protein, instead of only blocking it.
Science - Double-blind
- Neither the people taking part nor the study team know who gets which treatment until the end.
Trials
E3 terms
- E3 ligase
- One of hundreds of enzymes in the cell that attach the tag marking another protein for removal.
Science - Eligibility
- The rules for who can safely take part in a study, such as age or health.
Trials - Endpoint
- What a study measures to answer its question, such as a blood level or a side effect.
Trials
F1 term
- First-in-human
- The first time a new medicine is given to people, after laboratory testing. Also called first in people.
Trials
H3 terms
- Half-life
- How long it takes for half of a medicine to leave the body.
Science - Healthy volunteer
- Someone without the condition being studied, who takes part so a medicine’s safety can be checked.
Trials - HiBiT
- A tiny tag, 11 amino acids long, added to a protein in the laboratory. With its partner piece, LgBiT, it gives off light, so the glow shows how much of the protein is left.
Science
I2 terms
- Informed consent
- Agreeing to take part after the study has been fully explained, knowing you can stop at any time.
Trials - Investigational
- A medicine that is still being tested. It is not approved for general use.
Safety
L2 terms
- Ligand
- A small molecule that fits and holds onto one particular protein.
Science - Linker
- The chain that joins the two ends of a degrader, so it can hold two proteins together.
Science
M2 terms
- Mechanism of action
- How a medicine works in the body.
Science - Modality
- The kind of medicine, such as a small molecule, an antibody or a gene therapy.
Science
P7 terms
- Pharmacodynamics
- What a medicine does to the body.
Science - Pharmacokinetics
- What the body does to a medicine: how it is taken in, spread, broken down and removed.
Science - Phase 1, 2, 3
- The stages of testing in people. Phase 1 checks safety in a small group, Phase 2 looks at the dose and whether it helps, and Phase 3 compares it with current care in many people.
Trials - Placebo
- A dummy treatment that looks like the real one but contains no medicine.
Trials - Preclinical
- Research done in the laboratory, before a medicine is tested in people.
Science - Protein
- A molecule that does a job in the cell. Some cause disease when they go wrong.
Science - Proteasome
- The cell’s shredder. It breaks tagged proteins into small pieces to reuse.
Science
R2 terms
- Randomised
- People are put into treatment groups by chance, so the groups are fair to compare.
Trials - Research ethics committee (REC)
- An independent group that reviews a study before it starts and gives an opinion on whether it is ethical, to protect the rights, safety, dignity and wellbeing of the people taking part.
Trials
S2 terms
- Serious adverse event
- A medical event during a study that causes death, is life-threatening, needs a hospital stay, or causes lasting harm or a birth defect, whether or not the treatment caused it.
Safety - Small molecule
- A medicine made by chemistry, small enough to get inside cells. Most tablets contain small-molecule medicines.
Science
T3 terms
- Target
- The protein a medicine is designed to act on.
Science - Ternary complex
- Three molecules held together at once: the problem protein, the degrader and the ligase. This is the bridge.
Science - TR-FRET
- A laboratory test that shows when two labelled proteins come close. Energy passes from one marker to the other without any light passing between them, and the second marker then glows. “Time‑resolved” means the first marker glows for a long time, so the reading is taken after a short delay, which cuts out background light.
Science
U1 term
- Ubiquitin
- A small protein used as a tag. A chain of it tells the shredder to remove a protein.
Science
Y1 term
- Yellow Card
- The UK scheme anyone can use to report a suspected side effect from a medicine.
Safety
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