Computational Biology and Chemogenomics Team
Team Leader: Dr Bissan Al-Lazikani
Location: Haddow Laboratories, Sutton
Section: Section of Cancer Therapeutics (including the Cancer Research UK Centre for Cancer Therapeutics)
The last decade has witnessed an exponential growth of genomic data, and more recently structural and chemical data. A major challenge is to effectively utilize these diverse data in the development of new drugs.
The team’s main aim is to empower translational research in cancer drug discovery by using computational techniques to bridge the gap between biological and chemical knowledge. We develop novel computational tools and approaches to effectively integrate biological, chemical and clinical data at large scale. These tools will be employed in the following areas:
- Utilizing chemogenomics data to support decision-making in the drug discovery process, from target selection to lead identification. This should help identify opportunities and risks early on in the process thus helping streamline novel drug discovery
- Identifying patterns and rules in targets and networks which yield successful drugs, and applying these rules specifically in the complex field of cancer drug discovery
- Leveraging large scale structural biology and Structure Activity Relationship (SAR) data in determining target tractability and in aiding drug design
- Understanding rules governing ligand binding and target/ligand selectivity and using them predicatively in assessing target and compound development
- Utilizing published clinical outcome data to enhance the assessment and understanding of drug/target activities
These aims will be achieved through three major areas of research and development within the group:
- Integrated chemogenomics workbench, canSAR
- Objective target assessment
- 3-D structural analysis
Current Vacancy in the Computational Biology and Chemogenomics Team - Post-doctoral Training Fellow
In the Section of Cancer Therapeutics (including the Cancer Research UK Centre for Cancer Therapeutics)
