Formal Method Tools Could Dramatically Speed Drug Development and Improve Safety of New Drugs

MENLO PARK, Calif.– May 23, 2005 – SRI International, an independent, nonprofit research and development institute, today announced continuation of an important grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS, a unit of the National Institutes of Health) to model complex mammalian signaling networks based on signaling of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR).  

The NIGMS grant provides support for the mathematical modeling of complex mammalian signaling and other biological networks, using SRI's unique formal methods tools. Promoting the mathematical modeling of biological systems is a primary goal of NIGMS, which intends to disseminate such tools to biologists to help them understand the new paradigm of systems biology and to design experiments. Longer term, these tools may prove useful in validating novel therapeutic targets and predicting the side effects of experimental therapies.   This could dramatically speed drug development and improve the safety of new drugs - two major issues for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies today.

In the project's first phase, SRI demonstrated a novel computational approach to help researchers create, analyze, and test models of complex EGFR signaling networks. The approach uses SRI's patent-pending Pathway Logic (TM) pathway analysis software, based on the Maude computer language ( http://maude.csl.sri.com/ ), to model biological entities and processes. SRI developed some of these tools as part of a Web-based Pathway Logic viewer that allows multiple queries of graphical models of EGFR biochemistry.

In the second phase of the project, SRI will increase the utility and predictive capabilities of Pathway Logic by enhancing the ability of researchers to interact with the models. This phase will include development of the Pathway Logic Assistant, an application of the InterOperability Platform (IOP), a separately funded research project to enable the formal methods tools written in the Maude language to communicate and interact with each other. With IOP as the infrastructure, SRI researchers will begin to integrate a user interface, a model repository, new visualization tools, and various biological databases into Pathway Logic.

The ultimate research goal of Pathway Logic is to create models of large-scale signaling networks in defined cell types-computational models of mammalian cells defined in terms of their molecular responses to specific environmental signals.

"Pathway Logic models of biological systems are unique in that they are executable-the models exist only when assembled on demand from user-defined starting states," said Keith Laderoute, director of SRI's Cancer Biology Program.    "This feature is one means by which Pathway Logic offers the potential for researchers to model complex cellular networks in a familiar or intuitive way.   Ultimately, we intend to make our integrated and interactive online Pathway Logic tools available to a wide community of biologists and biomedical researchers. The support of NIGMS is helping to make this possible."

About SRI International

Silicon Valley-based SRI International ( www.sri.com ) is one of the world's leading independent research and technology development organizations. Founded as Stanford Research Institute in 1946, SRI has been meeting the strategic needs of clients for almost 60 years. The nonprofit research institute performs client-sponsored research and development for government agencies, commercial businesses and private foundations. In addition to conducting contract R&D, SRI licenses its technologies, forms strategic partnerships and creates spin-off companies.

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