The
new approach relies on a combination of tissue engineering
and computational analysis. In future, it could mean that
fewer experiments have to be carried out on animals.
Traditionally,
new drugs are found by testing individual biological pathways
- invariably using mice or other animals to check the effects.
But
the shortcomings of this method have been starkly highlighted
by the wealth of information obtained from the recently
published blueprint of the human genome.
In
reality, physiological systems involve an intricate web
of connections that work as a whole rather than a collection
of parts.
The
new "systems biology" approach involves devising ways of
measuring large numbers of pathways at the same time.
Scientists
hope it will speed up the development of cheaper, safer
drugs more geared towards individual patients.
It
now costs about £550 million to bring a new drug to market,
and one in 10 products never ends up being sold.
Professor
Doug Lauffenburger, one of the MIT scientists heading the
£6 million project, said: "We want to understand human physiology
in its complexity, not studying one molecule at a time,
one gene at a time, as has been the approach of the last
20 years, but to study tens, hundreds, thousands of them
at a time, because that's how they actually operate.
"What
that means is we have to introduce new types of experimental
measurements to measure tens, hundreds or thousands of things
simultaneously."
The
initiative was launched today by the Cambridge-MIT Institute
(CMI), an academic partnership between the two institutions,
set up in 2000, which receives Government and industry funding.
A
key element will involve engineering human tissue in the
laboratory for use in experiments, which in some cases could
replace tests on animals.
Another
is developing computer systems that can model biological
systems and analyse enormous quantities of data.
As
a first step, the scientists expect, within three years,
to mimic the way blood cells develop in the body.
Dr
Gos Micklem, a member of the Cambridge University team,
said: "There are major computational challenges involved
if we are going to make use of all the data and use it to
start building systems-level views of life and disease processes.
"As
we start to do this, and take into account the genetic variation
between individuals, this opens up new possibilities in
evaluating disease susceptibility, improved diagnosis and
the ability to offer therapy tailored to each individual
patient."
Reducing
the suffering of laboratory animals is seen as another desirable
outcome.
Dr
Adriano Henny, from the drug company AstraZeneca, which
is collaborating with the project, said: "There is a moral
aspect to this. We do want to reduce the number of experiments
of that type that need to be done to an absolute minimum."
source:
http://news.scotsman.com
posted on anc.org
