SBIR Phase II: OpenBio Workbench for Sharing of Mathematical Models in Drug Discovery

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase II project will develop an innovative software platform called OpenBio Workbench that will enable researchers in drug discovery to easily access and share mathematical models and model results. Modeling is becoming increasing important, motivated by the FDA's drive to modernize the drug discovery process and the advent of emerging fields such as Systems Biology. A broad adoption of modeling has been limited, however, because the current practice requires programming and computational skills not typically possessed by experimental researchers in biological sciences. In the Phase II project, the tool's capabilities will be augmented by allowing users to calibrate models by including experimental data, adding innovative advanced modeling tools such as model building. The potential commercial value of this workbench is high as the pharmaceutical industry is investing significantly in mathematical modeling and Systems Biology aiming to overcome both the high costs of drug development and the stagnation in the discovery of new drugs since the 1990's. Further, aging populations in developed countries are going to cause sharp increases in health care costs, while at the same time there are serious budgetary pressures (both from government and private insurers) to keep health care costs under control. Thus, methods that speed up the research cycle and reduce development costs for new drugs and treatments are going to become increasingly important.