Drug discovery naturally is a quite long process and is carried out in multiple stages and is an extremely expensive process that takes up to 12 to 15 years to get completed. The goal of any pharmaceutical company is to reduce this time and make the drug available for use as early as possible. This is where the computer aided techniques play a major role by processing the structured tabular data and accelerating at least one part of this process. 

However, the processing of unstructured data like languages, images, sound, and free text was still a problem which was resolved with the introduction of deep neural networks that revolutionized the ability of the computers to understand and process unstructured data.

In an effort to accelerate the whole drug discovery process, pharmaceutical companies also take assistance from drug discovery services that are offered by companies like Jubilant Biosys. Such companies assist in target discovery and candidate selection by providing flexible business models.

The importance of computer aided techniques in drug discovery

In the early stage of drug discovery, the scientists test candidate drugs on artificial cell cultures through a process in which the cells are grown on the micro plates which are composed of tens or hundreds of wells. The scientists treat each well with cells with a specific dose of the candidate compound and the goal is to observe the method of action of each compound. 

In this single procedure, hundreds of plates are involved and that is why it becomes impossible to go through all the results. However, with the help of computer aided technologies like computer visions, scientists are able to form an algorithm that could be used to process the data and accelerate the procedure. Although this helped the scientists a great deal in data processing it also came with its set of problems like the lack of processing of unstructured data, long processing time, and the lack of ability to see the effects on unseen data.

Better accuracy and precision

To tackle all of these problems, computer aided technologies like computer vision based on neural networks were introduced. As opposed to the traditional computer vision approach, the neural network-based approach provides the scientists with an assistant that is capable of processing massive amounts of data. The results are then represented on a properly designed user interface in a way that it gives maximum accuracy and minimum risks of mistakes. 

With such a technology that is supported by companies providing computer-aided drug discovery and structural biology services, the scientists can accelerate the early stages of discovery that would otherwise take much longer.

Final thoughts

When talking about the assistance of computer-aided technologies in drug discovery, it is important to mention that it takes nothing away from the years of practice and knowledge of the scientists. In fact, the combination of these technologies and the expertise of the scientists is what saves a lot of time and energy that goes into the early stages of drug discovery.

More info at https://www.jubilantbiosys.com/