Modeling and simulation at the intersection of basic science and pharmaceutical research - the view of a professor turned entrepreneur

Abstract: Relationships between academic laboratories and pharmaceutical research have been, and probably always will be, an important pathway for translation of basic science results into practical public benefits. Formalized relationships of this kind have been much in the news lately as the pharmaceutical industry works to refill depleted product pipelines. But academic and pharmaceutical scientists have different world-views and different priorities. We think modeling and simulation should be the technology that enables the pharmaceutical industry to integrate disparate, focused, occasionally conflicting academic results into the big picture they absolutely require: a mechanistic big picture that connects molecular cell biology to human pathophysiology. My plan is to tell the story of our company, Integrative Bioinformatics Inc, and our software product, ProcessDB, in the context of academic and pharmaceutical industry efforts to understand and treat heart disease.

Speaker Bio: Robert Phair earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT, was a commissioned officer in the US Public Health Service working in the Laboratory of Mathematical Biology at the National Cancer Institute, did a PhD in cardiovascular and cell physiology at the University of Michigan, and was a professor of physiology and of biomedical engineering for 17 years at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine before leaving academics and co-founding Integrative Bioinformatics Inc (IBI) with Ann Chasson, a software engineer and database design expert, here in the Bay Area. He has been working on the biology of cardiovascular disease doing experiments and testing mechanistic computer models for more than 30 years. IBI is on the threshold of its first pharmaceutical deal, raising the possibility of an exciting 2011.

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