Extract from Living in an Ivory Basement by Titus Brown –October 24, 2016 Some background: Science advances because we share ideas and methods Scientific progress relies on the sharing of both scientific ideas and scientific methodology – “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standing_on_the_shoulders_of_giants). The natural sciences […]

Drug Repurposing (DRPx), also commonly referred to as Drug Repositioning or Drug Rescue, emerged primarily in the early 1990s as an alternative to conventional de novo DDD. DRPx is defined more specifically as the process of finding new indications for approved drugs, abandoned or shelved compounds and candidates under development. DRPx is a complex process […]

Having consistent, reliable, and cross-linked data is one of the biggest challenges facing pharmaceutical RD. Although some data needs to be structured and aggregated, other data or documents need only to be indexed or stored. When do you use a spreadsheet, or when do you need a database? Both application types are useful but they […]

When we talk about collaboration or knowledge sharing, we often refer to external collaboration. The fact is that there are two types of collaboration: internal and external. The goal with both types of collaboration is very similar: get people to work together in a way that provides tangible benefits to common projects, while facilitating achievement […]

The idea for a target can come from a variety of sources including academic researches, or researches from the commercial sector. The initial research generates data to develop a hypothesis that the activation of a protein will result in a therapeutic effect in a disease state. The outcome of this activity is the selection of […]

Sometimes, sensitive and confidential data must be safeguarded by restricting access while, at the same time, one needs to enable data sharing for collaborative research or external cooperation. How to find the best way between open sharing models and exclusively closed access? Open and private sharing models can coexist to promote collaboration while safeguarding intellectual […]

The pharmaceutical industry is facing a real challenge. R&D efficiency declines fairly steadily, late stage attrition is high and drug development is costly. The biotech’s profitability is also under pressure as R&D budgets become increasingly strained. A possible solution known as “quick-kill strategy” consists in reducing R&D costs by terminating failing projects earlier in the […]

Pharmaceutical industry and biomedical research generates tons of data every day. But researchers find it difficult to analyze data from many different sources because it is fragmented into multiple computers and files. Numerous spreadsheets and files make it difficult to manage access, sharing and aggregation of data, or, worst, prone to error. Data warehouses are […]

Biotech companies work with large amounts of scientific data, data not only from internal operational systems such as ELN (Electronic Lab Notebook), LIMS (Laboratory information management system) or compound logistics software, but also from external sourcing and various lab devices. Data by itself is not enough. Today’s biotech companies need to consolidate data from multiple […]

In the late 1960’s, managing data has become an essential component of drug discovery and development. Technology advances made it possible to collect more data more easily and, today, scientists are submerged by a data deluge. Manual compilation of results and report writing require a substantial amount of time and, in a business context, these […]