New Platform for Clinically Predictive Drug Discovery in Neuropsychiatry - Dr. Pavel Osten

Please join the Quantitative Biosciences Engineering Program for the second QBE seminar of the 2023-2024 academic year:

For far too long, the field of psychiatry has relied on serendipity rather than systematic design in drug discovery. Our mission is to address this challenge by developing a neuroscience-informed, clinically predictive platform for engineering new therapeutics. Firstly, we've shifted the focus from drug-receptor interactions to drug-brain-network interactions by harnessing brain-wide, cellular-resolution mapping of drug induced neuronal activations. These maps reveal how drugs engage brain-wide networks in mouse models, leveraging the evolutionary preservation of cell types and connectivity. Secondly, we interpret these patterns by comparing them to a comprehensive database of known human drug effects and side effects. This allows us to create a predictive model for the potential impact of new drugs and has been validated by correctly predicting the outcomes of seventeen clinical trials to date.

Dr. Pavel Osten is the chief executive officer and founder of Theracast. He is also an adjunct Professor of Neuroscience at Icahn School of Medicine. He has been at the forefront of pioneering brain mapping techniques for quantitative studies of brain circuits. His expertise encompasses the development of novel microscopy technologies and early applications of machine learning to analyze large-scale whole-brain data sets, often referred to as "big data".