Omics: Informed drug and biomarker discovery

Abstract

OMICS encompasses several disciplines in which high- dimensional data are generated from molecules such as DNAs (genomics), RNAs (transcriptomics), proteins as DNAs (genomics), RNAs (proteomics), or metabolites (metabolomics). In recent years, the use of high-throughput omics technologies has led to the rapid discovery of many candidate biomarkers. However, very few tumor biomarker tests have passed the high bars for routine clinical application. Due to uncertainty in growth curves of pharmaceutical industry in spite of significant increases in investment and technological knowhow, gaps are ascertained in the future drug markets due to dwindling discovery pipelines and increasing regulatory control. The cumulative duration of discovery from concept to commercialization is unacceptably lengthy, and adds to the deepening crisis. Existing animal models predicting clinical translations are simplistic, highly reductionist and, therefore, not always fit for purpose. Thus, the coming of age of Omics-based applications makes available a formidable technological resource to further expand our knowledge of the complexities of human disease. The standardization, analysis and comprehensive collation of the “data-heavy” outputs of these sciences are indeed challenging. A renewed focus on increasing reproducibility by understanding inherent biological, methodological, technical and analytical variables is crucial if reliable and useful inferences with potential for translation are to be achieved. Herein, we discuss the potential implications of recent Omics-based advances for the drug development process. This review focuses on omics based study in drug discovery process.