Systems Biology Approaches to Drug Discovery

[natasa778]

Duh!!

http://www.nyas.org/Events/Detail.aspx?cid=073a364a-af58-49e0-896e-499e51427b66

The most pressing unmet medical needs correspond to complex diseases caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors. Traditional drug discovery strategies ignore the complexity of biological systems, screening compounds on individual targets rather than focusing on biomolecular networks. Despite growing evidence that the conditions we aim to treat are complex and require the development of treatments that exhibit polypharmacological properties, current drug discovery programs still rely on simplistic approaches during compound selection. Complexity is then considered during the development phase, where the costs and risks are much higher than in the discovery phase. This symposium aims to challenge the "one-target, one-disease" tradition and to discuss design and implementation of biological assays featuring multiple target strategies during the primary discovery steps.

 

[alex3619]

As a biochemist and a systems modeller, I say its about time.

 

[Waverunner]

Sounds very interesting and cuts straight to the problem we face. Despite the fact that we live in 2012, there were no breakthroughs or cures for any of the major diseases lately. It seems incredible hard to move on. It seems that we reached a thick wall, that we cannot breach. What we can do and what in my eyes is done lately, is that we try to slightly improve existing compounds and drugs (e.g. antihistamines). This is far from optimal, of course. Moreover we try to develop drugs for new findings. e.g. we know that Zonulin is involved in celiac disease. The first Zonulin inhibitor just finished phase 2 but the results were mixed and we don't know if it will finish phase 3. Our whole understanding of human disease seems so flawed and incomplete, that the only thing we can do at the moment, is to make baby steps towards the far away goal of curing a disease. I hope this changes with new technology.