A day in the life of a Computer Aided Drug Design (CADD) Scientist
Meet Luca Carlino, a Computer Aided Drug Design (CADD) Scientist from Charles River Laboratories. where techniques are used for the rapid assessment of chemical libraries in order to guide and speed up the early-stage development of new active compounds. Find out what a day is like in Luca’s shoes from generation of models and computational chemistry calculations to what kind of chemical modification might boost activity.
I’m responsible for…
Generating computational models aimed to support early drug discovery in the pharmaceutical industry. I am a computer aided drug design (CADD) scientist and my main responsibility is to rationally drive the chemical synthesis of new compounds through generation of computational models.
Usually the main goal of the models is to describe (and predict when possible) the interactions of new chemical matter with well-established pharmaceutical targets (DNA, proteins etc..) involved in human diseases.
The greatest benefits you can get from CADD is in the early stages of the “drug-developing-journey”, mainly because it allows you to save time and money, focusing only on the most promising chemical matter.
My typical day…
Ever since I have been a CADD scientist for Charles River, I have never had two identical working days. This is primarily due to the fact that I am working for a Contract Research Organization (CRO). Being a CADD scientist in a CRO typically means working every day on a different target, on a different project and on a different compound series.
Every day is very dynamic: you analyse the biochemical data used in your model and after two hours a medicinal chemist from a completely different project asks you what kind of chemical modification might boost the activity of his own chemical series.
If I have to standardise my typical day, I would write a list of activities I usually go through. Something like:
- Generation of models and computational chemistry calculations
- Presentations of the models to clients and/or to early discovery teams
- Analysis of biochemical data to refine and/or validate your models
- Rationalization of biochemical data through the models already established
The worst part of my job…
Working on several projects at different stages means that there are multiple deadlines to be made every day. This makes the job very dynamic but at the same time very challenging and rewarding.
Another challenging aspect of being a CADD scientist is that the generation of accurate and predictive models is not a trivial activity, for several reasons: namely, the computational power we have nowadays is still considered to be inadequate for some types of calculations and mathematical approximations can make models too simplistic. Moreover, the nature of the data you usually deal with can have limitations. Biological data can be highly complex and sometimes variable, impacting inevitably on the accuracy of your model. In several cases, even the simplest experimental biological conditions cannot be reproduced computationally.
The best part of my job…
That’s why the part of the job I like the most is when a computational model is able to reproduce the studied system or, even better, when it can forecast the behaviour of a compound and/or a chemical series.
More generally, another great aspect of my job is that it makes me think that what I am doing really helps the development of new drugs aimed to combat diseases of unmet medical need.
Advice to others…
From my point of view, to become a good CADD scientist you should be very curious, enterprising, collaborative, extremely keen to learn and especially keen to share with others. The “3D-thinking”, as I call it, might help. We study and draw compounds in 2D, but we live in 3D World, it seems to be a simple concept but from my experience it is not so easy for everybody. CADD scientists spend most of their time convincing other scientists that their models are good, that’s why having an aesthetics tendency might be really important for success.
You need to pay great attention to details - every single detail can make the difference between a good model and a bad model. Experience in data analysis helps the generation of accurate models.
Finally, working for a CRO is so rewarding in terms of improving knowledge and capabilities, but you must be ready to deal with pressure and tight deadlines. For me it is definitely worth the hassle!
I love my job because…
I love science!
I want to be remembered for...
As every scientist I would like to be remembered for my impact on science or, more specifically in medicinal chemistry. More generally, I would be satisfied if friends and colleagues will remember me as a good and trustable person, someone who works well with others.
More about Charles River
At Charles River, we are passionate about our role in improving the quality of people’s lives. Our mission, our excellent science and our strong sense of purpose guides us in all that we do, and we approach each day with the knowledge that our work helps to improve the health and well-being of many across the globe.
