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Biomedical subjects

Victor S Lobanov

Publications and source records attributed to Victor S Lobanov.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

Combinatorial informatics in the post-genomics ERA.

The multitude of potential drug targets emerging from genome sequencing demands new approaches to drug discovery. A chemogenomics strategy, which involves the generation of small-molecule compounds that can be used both as tools to probe biological mechanisms and as leads for drug-property optimization, provides a highly parallel, industrialized solution. Key to the success of this strategy is an integrated suite of chemi-informatics applications that can allow the rapid and directed optimization of chemical compounds with drug-like properties using 'just-in-time' combinatorial chemical synthesis. An effective embodiment of this process requires new computational and data-mining tools that cover all aspects of library generation, compound selection and experimental design, and work effectively on a massive scale.

Combinatorial Chemistry Techniques↗

Scalable methods for the construction and analysis of virtual combinatorial libraries.

One can distinguish between two kinds of virtual combinatorial libraries: viable and accessible . Viable libraries are relatively small in size, are assembled from readily available reagents that have been filtered by the medicinal chemist, and often have a physical counterpart. Conversely, accessible libraries can encompass millions or billions of structures, typically include all possible reagents that are in principle compatible with a particular reaction scheme, and they can never be physically synthesized in their entirety. Although the analysis of viable virtual libraries is relatively straightforward, the handling of large accessible libraries requires methods that scale well with respect to library size. In this work, we present novel, efficient and scalable techniques for the construction, analysis, and in silico screening of massive virtual combinatorial libraries.

Combinatorial Chemistry Techniques↗

On the use of neural network ensembles in QSAR and QSPR.

Despite their growing popularity among neural network practitioners, ensemble methods have not been widely adopted in structure-activity and structure-property correlation. Neural networks are inherently unstable, in that small changes in the training set and/or training parameters can lead to large changes in their generalization performance. Recent research has shown that by capitalizing on the diversity of the individual models, ensemble techniques can minimize uncertainty and produce more stable and accurate predictors. In this work, we present a critical assessment of the most common ensemble technique known as bootstrap aggregation, or bagging, as applied to QSAR and QSPR. Although aggregation does offer definitive advantages, we demonstrate that bagging may not be the best possible choice and that simpler techniques such as retraining with the full sample can often produce superior results. These findings are rationalized using Krogh and Vedelsby's decomposition of the generalization error into a term that measures the average generalization performance of the individual networks and a term that measures the diversity among them. For networks that are designed to resist over-fitting, the benefits of aggregation are clear but not overwhelming.

Computer Simulation↗

A cluster-based strategy for assessing the overlap between large chemical libraries and its application to a recent acquisition.

We report on the structural comparison of the corporate collections of Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research & Development (JNJPRD) and 3-Dimensional Pharmaceuticals (3DP), performed in the context of the recent acquisition of 3DP by JNJPRD. The main objective of the study was to assess the druglikeness of the 3DP library and the extent to which it enriched the chemical diversity of the JNJPRD corporate collection. The two databases, at the time of acquisition, collectively contained more than 1.1 million compounds with a clearly defined structural description. The analysis was based on a clustering approach and aimed at providing an intuitive quantitative estimate and visual representation of this enrichment. A novel hierarchical clustering algorithm called divisive k-means was employed in combination with Kelley's cluster-level selection method to partition the combined data set into clusters, and the diversity contribution of each library was evaluated as a function of the relative occupancy of these clusters. Typical 3DP chemotypes enriching the diversity of the JNJPRD collection were catalogued and visualized using a modified maximum common substructure algorithm. The joint collection of JNJPRD and 3DP compounds was also compared to other databases of known medicinally active or druglike compounds. The potential of the methodology for the analysis of very large chemical databases is discussed.

Algorithms↗