CCL: "Data In Drug Discovery - Time To Get Honest!", 23 Sep 2015, Cambridge

 Sent to CCL by: "Andreas  Bender" [ab454^^^cam.ac.uk]
 "Data In Drug Discovery - Time To Get Honest!", 23 Sep 2015,
 Cambridge/UK
 While life science data is currently being generated on a huge scale and across
 domains
 (bioactivity readouts, sequences, transcriptomics, proteomics, PTMs, etc.), the
 question
 becomes more and more apparent how useful this data is in practice.
 In order to bring an alternative viewpoint to the current hype of (not only)
 -omics
 technologies, this informal one-day meeting in Cambridge will start by making a
 case what
 currently does NOT work, and hence how limited our current understanding of
 biology
 appears to be. We will afterwards switch to somewhat more optimistic scenarios -
 and
 present case studies where -omics (and other life science) data has been able to
 support
 understanding of biology, decision making and discovery, across chemical biology
 and drug
 discovery (including development and clinical) settings. The aim is hence,
 afterwards, to
 develop a more realistic attitude towards biological data - with the aim to get
 a better
 feeling what we can, and cannot, see and detect in the various biological
 readouts
 currently available.
 Attendance is free, and registration possible by simple email to Andreas Bender,
 ab454() cam.ac.uk. The meeting will take place on 23 September, from 10-5pm, at
 the Centre
 for Molecular Informatics, Chemistry Department, Lensfield Road, Cambridge, CB2
 1EW,
 United Kingdom. Lunch on the day will be provided to all participants, and the
 meeting
 will subsequently conclude with a visit to the local pub.
 The programme of the meeting is not yet fixed, and everyone is hence encouraged
 to
 contribute, in order to make this an interesting event for everyone!
 Please supply a title of your talk with your registration email if you would
 like to
 present, in particular related to the topics listed below (but also anything
 else you find
 of relevance). The format will be short talks, intended to present a wide
 variety of data
 types and decisions in a focused manner. Talks can be conventional research
 presentations,
 but also viewpoints, opinions, etc. The final programme will then be circulated
 at the end
 of August to everyone who received this email, and everyone else registering for
 the
 meeting in the interim.
 Suggested topics are:
 1. Generating data: Relevant readouts in humans, and model systems (are cells
 actually of
 any use? 2D vs 3D assays, etc.); characterizing biology (from cell lines to
 patients); how
 to define reference states/baselines when characterizing biology; handling
 timepoints,
 localization, and dose appropriately;...
 2. Storing data: Biological (and other) ontologies; storing and searching
 (modified)
 antibodies and biologics; generating/handling/extracting relevant data from
 phenotypic
 screens; ...
 3. Modelling data: The hype of -omics technologies - and where is the signal?;
 how useful
 are pathways (and its current definitions)?; how consistent is biology (eg
 variance
 between patients, or model systems), and how noisy is our data?; feature
 selection/biomarker detection in noisy systems; cell sensitivity modelling (and
 its
 problems) as a case study; ...
 4. From data to therapy: So which protein (or other entity?) do we need to
 target?; which
 chemical (or biological) matter can we identify for this purpose, and how (based
 on which
 type of data and models)?; ...
 This list is certainly not exhaustive by any means - so if you have a case where
 data was
 (not) able to solve your problem, please just let me know, and we will be able
 to
 accommodate it!
 Feel free to circulate this invitation to anyone who might be interested to
 attend this
 event - everyone, from both industry and academia (or any other affiliation), is
 equally
 welcome. As mentioned above - registration is free, a simple email suffices.
 All the best, and hope to see you in September!
 Cheers,
 Andreas
 --
 Andreas Bender, PhD
 Lecturer for Molecular Informatics
 Centre for Molecular Informatics, Cambridge University
 Institute: http://www-ucc.ch.cam.ac.uk
 Group: http://www.ch.cam.ac.uk/group/bender/index
 Personal: http://www.andreasbender.de