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SUMMARY:Integrating Chemical and Biological Data for Drug Discovery - Dr A
 ndreas Bender
DTSTART:20170215T140000Z
DTEND:20170215T150000Z
UID:TALK68313@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Emily Boyd
DESCRIPTION:Recent technological advancement in the field of health scienc
 e brought with it a deluge of both chemical and biological data that is in
  need of interpretation. This information can be used to generate better u
 nderstanding of drivers of disease – such as chemical\, biological and/o
 r genetic markers – but possibly even more importantly it can be used to
  design more efficacious and safe medicines prospectively. Still\, current
 ly data is often not used effectively to reach this goal\, partly due to t
 echnical reasons (the sheer amount of data)\, but even more fundamentally 
 also due to lack of data integration (e.g. inconsistent identifiers)\, and
  our often crude understanding of what in particular biological readouts a
 ctually mean in order to make better decisions based on them.\n \nIn our r
 esearch group\, which currently comprises about 20 members\, we aim to add
 ress the above point by integrating data from across the chemical and biol
 ogical domains in order to improve decision making in the drug discovery p
 rocess. To this end\, project-specific data is employed (often in collabor
 ation with pharmaceutical companies\, such as AstraZeneca\, Johnson&Johnso
 n\, Eli Lilly\, BASF\, Unilever\, Aboca\, and others) in order to address 
 one of two principal aims: \n\nFirstly\, we aim to decide which compound i
 s most likely to possess desired efficacy and the relatively best side eff
 ect profile\, given the data at hand.\n\nSecondly\, we aim to understand t
 he mode-of-action\, or more generally biomodulatory capabilities\, of a sm
 all molecule by integrating diverse data (such as on-target bioactivity da
 ta and RNA-Seq data\, but also others). \n\nGiven a large number of collab
 orations with both academic groups as well as pharmaceutical\, chemical\, 
 and consumer goods companies we have accumulated significant expertise in 
 the area of chemical and biological data integration in order to support d
 ecision making in the drug discovery process in the above two areas (but a
 lso beyond).\n\nOur presentation will conceptually describe which types of
  data we are currently integrating\, our plans for future projects\, as we
 ll as case studies where ‘Big Data’ from across the chemical and biolo
 gical domains was able to improve compound design\, as well as enhance our
  understanding of a more complete bioactivity profile of chemical structur
 es.
LOCATION:MR4\, Centre for Mathematical Sciences\, Wilberforce Road\, Cambr
 idge
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