The objective of the Lower Saxony doctoral programme "Drug Discovery and Chemical Informatics for New Antiinfectives (iCA)" is focused on interdisciplinary research on new drugs against bacterial and parasitic pathogens. Doing this, identification of new biological target structures is also part of the programme. The iCA research is based on innovative digital techniques that support and speed up drug discovery.
Since spring 2020, 14 fellows from TU Braunschweig, the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research and Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences are working closely together in different fields of life and data sciences to strengthen drug discovery. On 28th June 2022, the consortium consisting of PhD students and project leaders exchanged ideas and discussed interim results from the PhD projects "in real life" at the Mid-term iCA Workshop. The meeting was accomplished by a dedicated poster exhibition.
Dr. Thomas Frischmuth, founder and managing director of the baseclick GmbH, showed by his guest talk "Strategies to control COVID-19 pandemic and disease - nucleic acid-based vaccines and drugs" how results from basic research can be transferred into clinical research and drug approval.
"Despite the extraordinary pandemic situation the fellows have managed to establish and conduct their projects in time and in an really interdisciplinary environment. The doctoral projects range from innovations in medicinal chemistry and the identification of new targets as sites of drug attack to machine learning methods for drug discovery," stated Professor Ingo Ott, initiator of the doctoral programme. "We are convinced that young scientists will benefit from the cross-disciplinary approach now and in the future. The knowledge how to work together across disciplinary boundaries is very supportive to meet the challenges in drug development" adds Dr. Gerlinde Benninger, Managing Director of the Center of Pharmaceutical Engineering (PVZ) who coordinates the programme.
The Mid-Term Workshop was an important step to select laboratory exchanges at the participating institutes.