Genomics in Drug Discovery and Development

Early characterization of toxicity and efficacy would significantly impact the overall productivity of pharmaceutical R&D and reduce drug candidate attrition and failure. By describing the available platforms and weighing their relative advantages and disadvantages, including microarray data analysis, Genomics in Drug Discovery and Development introduces readers to the biomarker, pharmacogenomic, and toxicogenomics toolbox. The authors provide a valuable resource for pharmaceutical discovery scientists, preclinical drug safety department personnel, regulatory personnel, discovery toxicologists, and safety scientists, drug development professionals, and pharmaceutical scientists.

New, effective strategies for early assessment of drug toxicity and efficacy

Genomics in Drug Discovery and Development introduces readers to the biomarker, pharmacogenomic, pharmacogenetic, and toxicogenomic toolboxes, four promising and rapidly growing areas of genomics research that have begun opening the door to personalized medicine solutions. The authors thoroughly review and analyze all relevant technologies and analytical methods necessary for the competent design and execution of biomarker, pharmacogenomic, pharmacogenetic, and toxicogenomic studies. Moreover, by emphasizing the synergies among these areas, they arm pharmaceutical discovery scientists and drug development professionals with state-of-the-art strategies for reducing drug development time and costs, expediting a drug's approval, and improving its life cycle. Academic researchers will find in this book authoritative and integrated coverage of these rapidly developing and popular areas of genomic research.

Readers involved in laboratory, clinical, or modeling studies who are seeking to assess the toxicity and efficacy of drug candidates as early as possible can rely on this book to help guide their experiments. Topics include:

• Weighing the relative advantages and disadvantages of available genomic technology platforms

• Using pharmacogenomics and pharmacogenetics to position drug studies in the context of clinical trials

• Identifying and validating biomarkers

• Predicting and characterizing the toxicity of drugs

• Applying study findings to improve the productivity of drug discovery

Today's pharmaceutical industry is characterized by exponentially rising R&D costs and a steadily decreasing percentage of approved drugs. Pharmaceutical discovery scientists therefore should take advantage of this book's unique integrated coverage of biomarkers, toxicogenomics, and pharmacogenomics in order to make their own discovery efforts as fruitful as possible.

Doody Review Services

Reviewer:Steven N. Hart, BS(University of Kansas Medical Center)
Description:This book is a start-to-finish approach to incorporating genomic data into the drug discovery pipeline.
Purpose:The purpose is to introduce many novel strategies, technologies, and toolboxes to aid researchers and industry professionals in progressing toward personalized medicine. More specifically, this book addresses three major components essential for personalized medicine: biomarker discovery, toxicogenomics, and pharmacogenomics with a particular emphasis on incorporating these platforms during early stages of drug design. The rationale for this approach is to stratify patient populations to identify subjects at risk of clinically significant toxicity and nonresponders to allow for safer, more effective, and more rapid drug discovery. These objectives are well defined and clearly addressed.
Audience:The book is intended to be of interest to academics, biologists in the pharmaceutical industry, and regulatory personnel who are in a position to appreciate the complexity of genomics and the wealth of useful information that it can provide. The idea is that these professionals will incorporate genomic data mining into drug discovery platforms. Many topics in this book will be of particular interest and familiarity to only one of these subgroups at a time, whereas those inexperienced in a particular area may find themselves being introduced to new concepts, but in a clear, easy to follow manner.
Features:In the book's nine chapters, readers are exposed to all relevant aspects of the strategies for and the implications of genomics in drug discovery and development. There is a strong and necessary emphasis on toxicogenomics, which serves as a major bottleneck in the drug development pipeline. Among others topics, gene expression array technology, data analysis, and how to make data publicly accessible in genomics databases - a requirement for all government funded genomics studies - are thoroughly covered.
Assessment:This book covers many of the relevant aspects of incorporating genomics into the standard drug discovery workflow. Of particular interest to me was the chapter on genomics technologies as tools in drug discovery. As an academic involved in genomics and pharmacology, I use many of the tools in this book frequently. The authors address many of the pitfalls associated with these technologies and also identify several key computational biology tools (such as databases) essential for the interpretation of genomics in drug discovery. The book also introduced me to the regulatory implications of how to transition genomics from the bench to bedside, a viewpoint that is sometimes lost in academia. Overall, it provides excellent, up-to-date coverage of the application of genomics in drug development.

Dimitri Semizarov, PhD, is a Senior Group Leader in the Cancer Research Department of Abbott Laboratories' Global Pharmaceutical R&D. Dr. Semizarov leads cancer genomics research at Abbott, applying genomics technologies to enable personalization of cancer therapy. He is author or coauthor of more than twenty scientific articles and eight patent applications, as well as three book chapters (including two chapters in Wiley's Preclinical Development Handbook).

Eric Blomme, DVM, PhD, Diplomate, American College of Veterinary Pathologists, is a Senior Project Leader for Cellular, Molecular, and Exploratory Toxicology in Global Pharmaceutical R&D at Abbott Laboratories. He has extensive drug discovery, toxicology, and screening experience working for Abbott, Pharmacia, Monsanto, Searle, Ohio State University, and Cornell University. Dr. Blomme has written over fifty journal articles and eight book chapters, and is a reviewer for multiple scientific journals in the fields of toxicology and pathology.