From genes to drugs

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return true" onmouseout="window.status=' '; return true">From genes to drugs</a></div> </td></tr></tbody></table></td> </tr></tbody></table></td> </tr><tr> <td valign="middle" width="100%"><table cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr> <td valign="middle" width="100%"><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr valign="middle"><td></td><td width="100%"><div class="Text165235"><a class="Link165235" href="Population-Approach.php" onmouseover="window.status='The population approach'; return true" onmouseout="window.status=' '; return true">The population approach</a></div></td></tr></tbody></table></td> </tr></tbody></table></td> </tr><tr> <td valign="middle" width="100%"><table cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr> <td valign="middle" width="100%"><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr valign="middle"><td></td><td width="100%"><div class="Text165235"><a class="Link165235" href="Target-Discovery.php" onmouseover="window.status='Target discovery'; 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return true" onmouseout="window.status=' '; return true">Clinical development</a></div></td></tr></tbody></table></td> </tr></tbody></table></td> </tr><tr> <td valign="middle" width="100%"><table cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr> <td valign="middle" width="100%"><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr valign="middle"><td></td><td width="100%"><div class="Text165235"><a class="Link165235" href="Publications/Index.php" onmouseover="window.status='Publications'; return true" onmouseout="window.status=' '; return true">Publications</a></div></td></tr></tbody></table></td> </tr></tbody></table></td> </tr></tbody></table> </td></tr></tbody></table> </div> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> <td colspan="1" rowspan="1" bgcolor="#ffffff" valign="top" width="10"> </td> <td colspan="1" rowspan="1" valign="top" width="520"> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"> <tbody><tr> <td> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"> <tbody><tr> <td width="100%"> <div class="Text171837">From genes to drugs</div> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"> <tbody><tr> <td width="100%"> <div class="Text1737">  The primary focus of deCODE's business is the development of new, more effective drugs based upon our gene discovery work in some 50 common diseases. Our population approach and unique competence in human genetics underpin the breadth of our drug development work, from target discovery through clinical trials. <br><br>Our approach offers several advantages for developing better drugs. Most medicines today are compounds that are aimed at treating the symptoms of disease, seldom the underlying causes. The principal reason for this is that to date the basic biology and pathogenesis of most of the big public health challenges - such as heart attack, stroke, Alzheimer's disease, osteoporosis, or asthma - are poorly understood. These diseases are common because of their complexity, and result from the interplay of both inherited and environmental factors. Genetics offers a means of unravelling this complexity and a window into the biology of disease. Through the identification of key genes involved in predisposition to a given disease, it is possible to study the proteins these encode and to tease out the biological pathway of the disease. Drugs targeting key elements in the pathway may be able to effectively disrupt the disease process. <br><br><img src="/web/20080509070851im_/http://www.decode.com/view_data/file174117.jpg" align="middle"><br><br>Using our population approach and resources, we can efficiently conduct population- and genome-wide scans to home in on the key genetic factors involved in any common disease in a virtually hypothesis-free manner. To date, deCODE has isolated 15 genes and drug targets in 12 common diseases, and mapped genes in some 16 more. This is an unmatched record of success. We have been able to do this through the analysis of genotypic and medical data from over 100,000 volunteers in our gene research in Iceland - more than 50% of the adult population - in tandem with our genealogical data linking together the entire present-day population and stretching back over 1100 years. By mining these datasets we can effectively trace the inherited components of a given disease, pinpointing the key disease genes as well as the specific markers or haplotypes within these genes that correlate with the disease. <br><br> Through functional biology research we are able to gain an understanding of the role of the proteins encoded by the disease genes and to select optimal targets for therapeutic intervention. Our structural biology and chemistry groups can generate three-dimensional images of our targets and discover and develop novel small-molecules that interact with these targets. <a href="Pipeline/Index.php#pad" class="Link1737">Our program in DG041</a> offers an example of how our approach has taken us in only three years from the identification of a disease gene and novel target and into mide stage human clinical trials. At the same time, as we have shown in our drug development program in <a href="Pipeline/Index.php#mi" class="Link1737">heart attack</a>, there are existing compounds developed by others for different indications that we may be able to in-license and enter directly into clinical trials, thereby leapfrogging over several years of discovery work. <br> <br> In our clinical development work we are pioneering the application of population data to the clinical development process, creating what we call the Information-rich Clinical Trial<span class="tm">TM</span>, or IRCT<span class="tm">TM</span>. The goal of this paradigm is to bring detailed genetic and phenotypic data to bear on the design, recruitment and analysis of the clinical development process, making trials much more sensitive instruments for gauging the effectiveness of new drugs. Because we can recruit cohorts with a detailed understanding of the pathways through which patients are susceptible to disease, the IRCT approach enables trials that are smaller, faster and more informative than traditional trials. We believe this offers an important means of better managing risk in the drug development process and of maximizing the therapeutic potential of new drugs.  </div> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> <td colspan="1" rowspan="1" bgcolor="#ffffff" valign="top" width="40"> </td> </tr> <tr height="0"> <td colspan="1" rowspan="1" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="0" valign="top" width="0"> </td> <td colspan="1" rowspan="1" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="0" valign="top" width="10"> </td> <td colspan="1" rowspan="1" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="0" valign="top" width="520"> </td> <td colspan="1" rowspan="1" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="0" valign="top" width="40"> </td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="1" rowspan="1" valign="top" width="0"> </td> <td colspan="4" rowspan="1" valign="top"> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"> <tbody><tr> <td><br><br><br></td> </tr> <tr> <td> <img src="/web/20080509070851im_/http://www.decode.com/view_data/file171828.gif" usemap="#Map3" border="0" height="18" width="770"> <map name="Map3"><area shape="rect" coords="375,1,419,20" href="index.php" alt="www.decode.com"><area shape="rect" coords="422,1,471,17" href="Sitemap.php" alt="Sitemap"><area shape="rect" coords="476,0,527,18" href="Contact.php" alt="Contact deCODE genetics"><area shape="rect" coords="533,1,603,20" href="javascript:window.open('https://web.archive.org/web/20080509070851/https://inotes.decode.is/decontacts.nsf/contact?OpenForm','aWindow','width=600,height=620,menubar=yes,location=no,resizable=yes,hotkeys=no,directories=yes,scrollbars=yes,toolbar=no,titlebar=yes' ); void(0);" alt="Subscribe to the deCODE mailing list"><area shape="rect" coords="608,0,686,19" href="Legal.php" alt="Legal Notice"> </map> </td> </tr> <tr> <td><br></td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </div> <script src="https://web.archive.org/web/20080509070851js_/http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript"> </script> <script type="text/javascript"> _uacct = "UA-888633-1"; urchinTracker(); </script>   <script type="text/javascript"> //var DOCUMENTGROUP=''; //var DOCUMENTNAME=''; //var ACTION=''; </script>   <script type="text/javascript" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20080509070851js_/http://www.decode.com/indextools.js"></script><noscript> <div><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20080509070851im_/http://stats.indextools.com/p.pl?a=1000738914684&js=no" width="1" height="1" alt=""/></div></noscript>  </body></html>

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From genes to drugs