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SUMMARY:Use of different types of information to better understand compoun
 ds’ Mechanism of Action. - Maria-Anna Trapotsi\, University of Cambridge
DTSTART:20190227T141500Z
DTEND:20190227T143500Z
UID:TALK115066@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Lisa Masters
DESCRIPTION:A principal challenge in the drug discovery process is the dev
 elopment of therapeutic compounds and the understanding of their Mechanism
  of Action (MoA). The a priori knowledge of a compound’s MoA can facilit
 ate and accelerate drug discovery and inform on potential off-target effec
 ts. Hence\, it is significant to know the mechanism through which a drug e
 xerts its pharmacological effect as this information can pave the way for 
 the development of a therapeutic drug with well-known on- and off-target e
 ffects. The MoA has been extensively investigated on a protein-target leve
 l by predicting targets based on bioactivity data with the ultimate goal t
 o elucidate the MoA of drugs and possible off-target effects. The rational
 e behind these methods relies on the assumption that structurally similar 
 compounds are more likely to exhibit similar properties. However\, the pre
 mise is not always valid because of the complex biological processes that 
 occur during a biological dysfunction (i.e. disease) and also because comp
 ounds exhibit a broad range of activity that could be beyond the bioactivi
 ty effect. The dysfunction can occur in different levels of the biological
  system such as the expression of genes\, biological pathways and proteins
 . Human biology is highly complex and thus it is challenging to develop a 
 safe and efficacious medicine. As such\, modern drug discovery has broaden
 ed from the classic “single target-based” approach towards the underst
 anding of the compounds’ polypharmacology\, gene expression and activity
  on biological pathways. Bioinformatic approaches can facilitate the proce
 ss of MoA understanding by using multilevel information from high throughp
 ut biological assays with machine learning techniques in order to reveal u
 nexplored connections and interactions of small molecules with the biologi
 cal system. Therefore\, this talk aims to provide an overview of different
  types of information that can be used to better understand compounds’ M
 oA.\n
LOCATION:Department of Chemistry\, Cambridge\, Unilever lecture theatre
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