Computational Biology in Drug Discovery and Repurposing

This new book takes an in-depth look at the emerging and prospective field of computational biology and bioinformatics, which possesses the ability to analyze large accumulated biological data collected from sequence analysis of proteins and genes and cell population with an aim to make new predictions pertaining to drug discovery and new biology. The book explains the basic methodology associated with a bioinformatics and computational approach in drug designing. It then goes on to cover the implementation of computational programming, bioinformatics, pharmacophore modeling, biotechnological techniques, and pharmaceutical chemistry in designing drugs. The major advantage of intervention of computer language or programming is to cut down the number of steps and costs in the field of drug designing, reducing the repeating steps and saving time in screening the potent component for drug or vaccine designing.

The book describes algorithms used for drug designing and the use of machine learning and AI in drug delivery and disease diagnosis, which are valuable in clinical decision-making. The implementation of robotics in different diseases like stroke, cancer, COVID-19, etc. is also addressed. Topics include machine learning, AI, databases in drug design, molecular docking, bioinformatics tools, target-based drug design, and immunoinformatics, chemoinformatics, and nanoinformatics in drug design. Drug repurposing in drug design in general as well as for specific diseases, including cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, tuberculosis, COVID-19, etc., is also addressed in depth.

Rajani Sharma, PhD, is Assistant Professor in the Department of Biotechnology at Amity University Jharkhand, Ranchi, India. She has published research papers, review papers, and book chapters as well as two patents, one national and one international. She is a reviewer for several journals, including Public Health Journal. She is a lifetime member of the Association of Microbiologists of India. Dr. Sharma has participated in a number of national and international conferences.

A. V. Senthil Kumar, PhD, is Director and Professor in the PG and Research Department of Computer Applications at the Hindusthan College of Arts and Science, Coimbatore, India. He has published book chapters, many papers in international and national journals and conferences, and nine edited books. He is Editor-in-Chief for the International Journal of Data Mining and Emerging Technologies and an editorial board member and reviewer for several other international journals. He is a key member of the Machine Intelligence Research Lab (MIR Labs).

Kunal Kumar, PhD, is Assistant Professor at the Amity Institute of Biotechnology, Amity University Jharkhand, Ranchi, India. Dr. Kumar has publications in research journals and book chapters to his credit to date. He has filed one national patent at the patent office of the Govt. of India. He has worked on core areas of enzyme technology and protein science.