Need deeper collaboration between various disciplines for developing targeted drug therapy: Pondicherry University V-C

Vice-Chancellor of Pondicherry University P. Prakash Babu has stressed the need for more collaboration among neurochemists, pharmacologists, molecular biologists, nanotechnologists, computational scientists and clinicians for developing strategies for targeted drug delivery system.

Participating in the 40^th annual meeting of the Society for Neurochemistry India at Pondicherry University, the Vice-Chancellor said targeted drug delivery and improved penetration of therapeutics into the brain require collaboration between various academic disciplines. 

The V-C drew attention to key challenges such as the blood-brain barrier, which protects the brain but also creates a major obstacle for delivering therapeutic molecules to the central nervous system. Modern neuroscience generates vast datasets from genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, brain imaging, electrophysiology and clinical records, the V-C said.

“The real challenge is to transform data into knowledge, knowledge into understanding and understanding into effective therapeutic strategies. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning are increasingly helping researchers identify complex patterns in brain imaging, discover potential biomarkers, predict disease progression and identify possible therapeutic targets,” the V-C said.

The university in a release said a three-day conference held as part of the annual meeting would conclude on Saturday. The conference on the theme “Integrative Neurochemistry: Neuroinformatics and Therapeutics,” was organised by the School of Life Sciences at PU.