Episode 67
First aired March 14, 2018
Drug discovery through bioinformatics – A perfect marriage between ancient wisdom and modern science.
With advancement in technology, it is possible to create virtual human systems such as virtual skin and then to test the effects of molecular interactions between plants and human biology. In this interview, Dr Hrishikesh Damle talks about the potential of bio-informatics in new drug discovery. Dr Damle discusses with Dr Vijay Murthy, how folklore medicine, plant based medicines from traditional systems such as Ayurveda and even foods can be researched to find their therapeutic benefits using bio-informatics. In an era where there is greater understanding of foods, herbal medicines and nutraceuticals, bio-informatics research can be the first step towards drug discovery.
About our Guest
Dr Hrishikesh Damle BAMS, MD (Ay) initially worked in Reliance Health & Technology.Dr Damle worked as a practitioner for eight years and started Atrimed Pharmaceuticals, a pioneer in Phyto- Biotechnology. He developed standardisation methods for formulations and created several protocols for studying the Ayurvedic products in clinical trials. Dr Damle has developed a library of Phytomolecules in 3D, ready for virtual screening. He started a Bioinformaics lab to screen phyto molecules against disease targets. Dr Damle started a systems biology project to create virtual skin cells, effecter pathways, their cross talk & application in drug development processes. He complied and created an expert system to predict activity of a drug based on the available metabolic pathways of secondary metabolites correlating with their gene expression. Currently Dr Damle is working on trans disciplinary approach for drug development and standardised and validated in-vitro models and in-vivo models for drug development process using phytochemicals.
