Read about how the course aims to have drug developers sort through data for medications to know what drugs approved for one disease might be usable for others in the latest issue of “CATALYST.”
Photo: School of Pharmacy professor Joga Gobburu. (Photo by Matthew D'Agostino)
Three years ago, Debi Hudgens, PhD, MBA, CLP, CA-AM, was diagnosed with a rare renal disease.
Hudgens is fortunate, she said — there are new medications that have come out in recent years that are helping. But after her diagnosis, Hudgens found herself in the rare disease space, something that caused her to realize just how much work still needs to be done for patients struggling.
“There’s a lot of medications that still need to be developed. That’s my dream — to go work in that space and really come up with new therapeutics,” said Hudgens, a chemist by trade and a student at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy (UMSOP). “Whether it’s in the early discovery [phase] or even in the … translational science [phase], finding new biomarkers [and] doing clinical trial optimization for those rare disease trial patients — any of those are areas where I’d really like to be to be able to help out.”
It’s that goal to help others dealing with a disease with little or no treatment options that led Hudgens to UMSOP’s newly launched, one-of-a-kind MS in Artificial Intelligence for Drug Development (AIDD) program.
The MS in AIDD was born from industry experts like Joga Gobburu, PhD, MBA, professor, Department of Practice, Sciences, and Health Outcomes Research (P-SHOR), UMSOP, who are looking to educate and prepare students with cutting-edge skills in natural language processing and machine learning to accelerate innovation at every stage of drug development.
The program, led by Gobburu, recently completed the fall semester with its first cohort of 18 students — Hudgens included.
‘Like Looking for a Needle in a Haystack’
Hudgens’ story isn’t unique.
One in 10 Americans lives with a rare disease, half of whom are children, according to the National Organization for Rare Disorders. But, of the more than 10,000 known rare diseases, fewer than 5 percent have an approved treatment.
But what if drug developers were better able to sort through the insurmountable amount of data around medications to know what drugs approved for one disease might be usable for other diseases?
“Imagine in drug development: You have [national and] global regulatory agencies that keep putting out documents, regulations, policies, and product labels. Easily … you’re looking at millions of documents,” Gobburu said. “Can you, as a drug developer, use AI to … not only access documents, but be able to pinpoint the answers to questions that you’re looking for?
“It’s like looking for a needle in a haystack. That is where AI can help drug developers,” he added.
Read more about the MS in AIDD in the spring issue of CATALYST.
The latest issue of "CATALYST" magazine celebrates the students and alumni who represent the future of Maryland’s health, law, and social work professions. Read about a School of Nursing alumna who turned her 2023 Grid Pitch idea into Ryan’s Place, a health care center in Gaithersburg, Md.; how Maryland Carey Law’s Law and Health Care Program prepares students to serve; a School of Dentistry graduate who studies gene therapies to prevent and treat cleft lip; a School of Social Work graduate who has been appointed to Maryland’s Commission on LGBTQIA+ Affairs; and what’s on the desk of Courtney Jones Carney, assistant vice president of student success, leadership, and engagement.