Beyond the Genome: A Drug for Every Gene?

Genomics is revolutionizing the way in which we think about biology. Downstream technologies such as proteomics and structural biology now underpin our understanding of biological structure and function, while genome-wide transcriptome and proteome analysis allow us to gain an impression of the dynamic processes underlying biochemistry and physiology. Nowhere is the impact of genomics greater than in drug discovery. Genomics is now influencing the evolution of the pharmaceutical industry. This presentation will focus on emerging technologies in genomics-based drug design and chemoinformatics as solutions for new lead discovery, the starting point of drug development. It will highlight some of the opportunities and challenges in industrializing the drug design process, and will address the emerging bottlenecks in reducing the design process to genome-wide application.