Pharmacoinformatics
Pharmacoinformatics (or pharmacy informatics) is a sub-discipline of chemoinformatics involving "the application of information technology in drug discovery and development."[1] The field incorporates knowledge from numerous other disciplines, including bioinformatics, cancer informatics, immunoinformatics, neuroinformatics, and toxicoinformatics.[1]
An alternate, more healthcare-related definition was suggested by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) in 2007, describing pharmacoinformatics as "the scientific field that focuses on medication-related data and knowledge within the continuum of healthcare systems — including its acquisition, storage, analysis, use, and dissemination — in the delivery of optimal medication-related patient care and health outcomes."[2]
Techniques and tools
Virtual screening
Virtual screening technology is vital to the field of pharmacoinformatics, with scientists heavily using it to computationally screen existing compound databases for hit/lead identifications rather than to conduct the actual molecular interaction and chemical research from scratch.[1] In contrast to high-throughput screening, virtual screening involves computationally screening in silico libraries of compounds, by means of various methods such as docking, to identify members likely to possess desired properties such as biological activity against a given target. In some cases, combinatorial chemistry is used in the development of the library to increase the efficiency in mining the chemical space. More commonly, a diverse library of small molecules or natural products is screened.[3] Such research often leads to positive results in the field of drug discovery; however, the process requires informatics tools to process data from virtual libraries, let alone store and organize them.
Other databases and systems
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Bharatam, Prasad V.; Khanna, Smriti; Francis, Sandrea M.; Gad, Shayne Cox (ed.) (2008). "Chapter 1: Modeling and Informatics in Drug Design". Preclinical Development Handbook: ADME and Biopharmaceutical Properties. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 1–46. ISBN 9780470249024. http://books.google.com/books?id=ip05coBWSrsC&pg=PA22. Retrieved 30 May 2014.
- ↑ "5. HIMSS Pharmacy Informatics Task Force Develops Definition". HIMSS E-News. HIMSS. 3 January 2007. Archived from the original on 19 June 2007. https://web.archive.org/web/20070619055803/http://www.himss.org/content/files/ENews/2007/indi_20070103.htm. Retrieved 30 May 2014.
- ↑ Leach, Andrew R.; Gillet, Valerie J. (2007). An Introduction to Chemoinformatics. Springer. pp. 256. ISBN 9781402062902. http://books.google.com/books?id=4z7Q87HgBdwC&printsec=frontcover. Retrieved 19 May 2014.
