Quantitative Systems Pharmacology (QSP) is a new emerging area of science. It brings a systems approach to the development of pharmaceuticals, using quantitative approaches such as mathematical modelling and data analysis to integrate subcellular genetic and protein-protein interaction networks with body scale information and clinical data. For pharmaceutical development this means the advantage of traditional pharmacokinetic pharmacodynamic (PKPD) modelling approaches, often used in clinical trial design, to the earlier stages of drug development. To realise its goal the field requires input from many different areas of science including pharmacology, cell and molecular biology, mathematics and statistics.
There is a growing literature on QSP of which the following provide useful introductions and commentary. Clicking on each of the respective references will take you to the relevant website or journal page.
Sorger et al. Quantitative and systems pharmacology in the post-genomic era, NIH White Paper by the QSP Workshop Group, 2011.
Altman. Translational Bioinformatics: Linking the Molecular World to the Clinical World. Clin Pharmacol Ther. 91 (6):994-1000, 2012.
Agoram & Demin. Integration not isolation: arguing the case for quantitative and systems pharmacology in drug discovery and development. Drug Disc Today 16 (23/24):1031-1036,2011.
Vicini & van der Graaf. Systems pharmacology for drug discovery and development: paradigm shift or flash in the pan? Clin Pharmacol Ther 93 (5):379-381, 2013.
The UK QSP Network was formed by an enthusiastic group of UK and international scientists in industry and academia in 2015, to bring and nurture this new emerging area of science to the UK research space. The Network was jointly funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and the Medical Research Council with recognised finanical support from Pfizer, AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline from 2015 to 2018. Since 2019 the Network has moved to a self-funded model and continues to run regular events.
The network Organising and Scientific Committees are comprised of engineers, mathematicians and industry and academic pharmacologists.
Prof Mike Chappell (Warwick), School of Engineering, University of Manchester.
Dr Lourdes Cucurull-Sanchez, Pharmetheus.
Dr Giovanni Di Veroli, AstraZeneca.
Prof Patrick Lewis, Royal Veterinary College.
Dr Mark Penney, AstraZeneca.
Dr Cristina Santini, Roche.
Prof Marcus Tindall (Lead), University of Reading.
Dr James Yates, GlaxoSmithKline.
Prof Peter Ghazal (Division of Infection & Pathway Medicine, University of Edinburgh, UK)
Prof Helen Byrne (Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford, UK)
Prof John King (Mathematical Sciences, University of Nottingham, UK)
Dr Nicolas le Novere (Babraham Institute, Cambridge, UK)
Prof Piet van der Graaf (Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research, The Netherlands)
Dr Lloyd Bridge (Department of Mathematics, Swansea University)
Prof Hans Westerhoff (Centre for Systems Biology, University of Manchester).