Connecting the dots: role of standardization and technology sharing in biological simulation

Abstract

The role of biological modeling and simulation in enhancing productivity across the drug discovery pipeline has been increasingly appreciated over the past decade by the pharmaceutical industry. However, adoption of in silico modeling and simulation techniques has been sparse due to skepticism in the associated pay-offs and knowledge gap in research. While biological simulations have been successfully applied in specific projects, a standardized, community-wide platform is imperative for making the final leap of faith across the domain. This review outlines the issues and challenges involved in fostering a private-public collaborative effort for the development of standard modeling and biosimulation platforms and concludes with insights into possible mechanisms for integrating an in silico pipeline into the drug discovery and development process.