Time: Thursday 18 March 2021 at 19:30

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this event will be delivered online. More details can be found here.

Title: Computational Biology in Drug Target Discovery

The field of computational biology has exponentially grown in recent years, enabling novel insights into biological mechanisms underlying human disease. This is a diverse field, ranging from the use of advanced genetics methods to machine learning applications. Computational biology has revolutionised the way in which we can identify and develop new drugs for human disease. In this talk we will discuss how advanced analytics of large biological and clinical datasets can be used to gain insight into cardiometabolic disease. We will then discuss how we can use these insights to identify and test novel drug targets.

Speaker: Zahra McVey

I am a Research Scientist working for the Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk. I currently work in a Computational Biology team at Novo Nordisk Research Centre Oxford (NNRCO), where our focus is the discovery of new drug targets in cardiovascular and metabolic (cardiometabolic) disease. Prior to joining the team in Oxford, I worked in a Data Science team in Copenhagen, where Novo Nordisk’s headquarters are located. I have a diverse background, having completed my PhD at the University of Oxford in leukaemia stem cell biology. Based at the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, I worked in the lab as a scientist, while developed my skills in computational biology. My scientific interest is in the use of computational biology to advance our biological understanding of disease, and ultimately develop effective treatments for patients.