Biomedical Discovery

One of the key goals of the lab is to use the tools of bioinformatics to identify new biological insights or testable hypotheses. The projects in this area are often, but not always, collaborations with experimental scientists here at Scripps Research or elsewhere. These discovery-oriented projects tend to last anywhere from six months to many years, and they can touch on a wide variety of biological systems or disease areas. Historically, we’ve pursued projects in cancer biology, infectious diseases, osteoarthritis, mouse genetics, and oxidative stress. Currently, the discovery projects in the lab include the following themes:

• Drug repurposing: Discovery of new indications for approved drugs is a promising method to identify new therapeutics, especially for rare monogenic diseases. We computationally identify repurposing candidates using knowledge graph reasoning and gene expression complementarity. Through support from the NIA, we are also using these strategies to identify repurposing candidates for Alzheimer’s Disease.
• Aging: In a collaboration with the Petrascheck Lab, we are investigating transcriptional signatures associated with aging and lifespan extension.