ARPA-H Awards $26.7M for 'In Silico' Drug Development
Draper and its partners have secured $26.7 million in funding from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H). The award will support the development of new in silico models, or computer simulations, of human physiology. The project aims to create safer and more efficient methods for drug development, expanding opportunities for computational biologists.
- This funding is part of a larger ARPA-H initiative called CATALYST (Computational ADME-Tox and Physiology Analysis for Safer Therapeutics), which aims to use computer models to modernize and improve the accuracy of preclinical safety testing. - Draper’s key partners in this project include Revalia Bio, Inc., the Krishnaswamy Lab at Yale University, and LifeShare Network, bringing together expertise in nonprofit research, biotechnology, and academic data science. - The project will create a "Human Data Stack" for its simulations, integrating four distinct layers of information: patient electronic medical records, data from donated human organs, cellular data from biopsies, and data from Draper's microphysiological "organ-on-a-chip" systems. - A primary goal is to create a reliable alternative to animal testing. More than 90% of drug candidates that enter development ultimately fail, and a quarter of those failures are due to safety issues that were not predicted by initial animal studies. - The initial proof-of-concept will focus on modeling the human liver and kidney, as these are the body's primary filtering organs and are often where drug toxicity issues first appear. - This work exemplifies a career in computational biology, which involves using programming skills, AI/machine learning, and large biological datasets to solve complex problems, differing from patient-facing roles that focus on clinical trials and care. - ARPA-H, the funding agency, is modeled after DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) and was specifically created to support high-risk, high-reward biomedical breakthroughs that are unlikely to be funded by traditional research grants or commercial investment. - Success in this type of *in silico* work could directly impact future clinical research careers by increasing the number of safer, more viable drug candidates that are ready for human trials, which are managed by clinical research associates and project managers.
