Research informatics:Layout 1 14/1/10 19:56 Page 24
Informatics
References
handle, a pictorial rendition can facilitate analysis. cies between data and visualisation, as well as col-
1 Ruffalo, RR. Why has R&D Even as scientists slice and dice through moun- laboration and workflow.
productivity declined in the
tains of 2-D graphical data, they often need other In the face of major challenges and pressure to
pharmaceutical industry?
types of graphical presentation for drill down replenish the revenue pipeline, research organisa-
Expert Opin Drug Discovery,
1, 99-102, 2006.
analysis. Pharmaceutical companies have two tions have an opportunity to re-emerge as the
2 Sams-Dodd, Frank.
options, either to develop bespoke applications for growth engines of industry. This will need signifi-
Optimizing the discovery molecule and data visualisation or buy third party cant commitment from the leadership team and a
organization for innovation.
applications. Researchers can use intuitive strong vision for the future supported by the abili-
Drug Discovery Today, 10(15),
Research Informatics tools to guide them towards ty to acquire and deliver value in a phased manner.
August 2005.
3 R&D Efficiency, Tuft Center
standard data views for inspection, which offer a Pharmaceutical organisations, patients, payers and
for the Study of Drug
fresh perspective on how to tackle multi-dimen- governments alike will welcome faster and cost-
Development. Tufts Univ., sional data views. effective discovery of innovative therapies for pres-
Outlook 2009.
a71 Semantics for data interoperability – ent day medical challenges. DDW
Aggregation of information across the discovery
value chain is pivotal to creating an integrated dis-
covery engine and is considered one of the leading
tools for pharmaceutical companies worldwide.
However, still more important to successful drug
discovery is a company’s ability to carry out cross-
functional search. Effective integration infrastruc-
ture enhances the ability to undertake cross-func-
tional searches on biological and chemical infor-
mation categories, greatly reducing time-to-market
for new drugs.
Building data service methods around key
domain entities is a good way to broker informa-
tion across multiple points of access. These servic-
es can fetch data from diverse scientific silos in the
context of the research investigation. Currently, life
science companies are wading through biological
and chemical semantics to create a web of standard
ontology. This helps scientists link a compound to
a product, relate clinical protocols with an indica-
tion, associate a protocol with an experiment,
determine synonym company identification with a
generic name of a compound, or connect pharma-
covigilance signals to genes in a pathway. Presently,
product companies are building ontology-driven
search capabilities and creating a connected graph Dr Anirban Ghosh is a Principal at Infosys
of terms and concepts. Using semantic technolo- Consulting. He has made significant contributions
gies, researchers and programme directors can dis- in scientific innovation and research informatics
cover relationships that enable them to make bet- through international publications, patents and
ter and faster decisions about disease targets and solution implementations at top pharmaceutical
drug compounds. and applied life sciences companies. He can be con-
tacted at
ghosh_anirban@infosys.com.
Conclusion
Drug discovery holds huge potential benefits for Siddharth Sawhney is a Senior Project Manager
both the pharmaceutical industry and its cus- with the Life Sciences practice at Infosys
tomers. Research Informatics is a vital array of Technologies. He leads the effort for design and
tools which can help advance the speed and suc- development of informatics solutions for discovery
cess rate of drug research. However, companies research. He has experience in software engineer-
looking to overhaul their research capabilities ing, process consulting, and programme manage-
must recognise that this is a major transformation ment. He can be reached at sid-
effort and that there are complex inter-dependen-
dharths@infosys.com.
24 Drug Discovery World Winter 2009/10
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