Make Better Drug Discovery Decisions through Collaborative Analytics - CDD Webinar Video

Dr. Chris Cooper (TB Alliance) and Dr. Matt Segall (Optibrium) came together to discuss different approaches they are applying to achieve better outcomes in neglected disease research. They shared their successes in fostering better collaborative dynamics, and discussed the use of technologies aiding visualization and data analytics.

There are critical human health issues that are not well addressed by academic or industrial researchers in today’s natural drug discovery marketplace. Areas like rare and neglected diseases, as well as antimicrobial resistance, simply are not spontaneously “solved” with our current system. Significant scientific, social, and technological changes could improve the landscape if we were to “Think Different”, according to the succinct motto by Steve Jobs that has permeated the collective consciousness outside of  Silicon Valley.

Specifically for treating Tuberculosis (TB), the challenges are significant. The standardized Directly Observed Therapy “Short-course” (DOTS), a complex combination of pills taken daily for 6-9 months, provides the first challenge. The emergence of MDR-TB, XDR-TB, and TDR-TB is another hurdle. And complications related to immune suppression for individuals with HIV and TB co-infection provides a third challenge. Intellectually, there is also the scientific challenge of growing our basic understanding of the biology of latent versus active TB, and TB’s response to the range of potential treatments.

Optibrium Stardrop technologies and CDD Vault platform are “therapeutic area agnostic” tools.  Thus the stories shared and lessons learned for TB will resonate across many therapeutic areas and with many drug discovery hunters.