Research Director

Kimito Funatsu

The University of Tokyo
Professor
website

Outline

While massive amounts of quantitative data have accumulated across the pipeline of a drug candidate's initial discovery up through its production process, knowledge of and data analysis for each of the discovery and production processes has remained isolated.
In this project, we aim to establish a platform which allows us to unify relevant knowledge about the different processes and their associated data, and to advance research into improved and optimized systems that view pharmaceutical development from a comprehensive, correlated, and high-level perspective.
The research will be driven by big data, beginning with extraction of patterns for directions in lead molecule development based upon large volumes of compound and protein data.
These patterns will be combined with a virtually-generated compound library and identification of targets for such compounds, with candidate compounds further evaluated for their synthetic and production feasibility.
Massive quantities of production-related will also drive the development of methods for assessing safe operation of production plants that are sufficiently equipped for production of the generated drug candidates, leading to the establishment of enhanced models for risk assessment, risk management, and quality control.
This research will lead to a new, collective platform for systematic and efficient development of pharmaceuticals from discovery through production.