Designing drugs is a complicated, lengthy, and very expensive process. On the other hand, there is a huge demand for new therapeutic options for well-known diseases like, e.g., cancer, and for the ability to quickly react to yet unkown challenges like new types of viral infections.
The systematic use of efficient computer-based "rational drug design" techniques has been shown to significantly speed up the whole design process. In addition, it provides us with new insights into the behaviour of a drug in a living organism, leading to the development of more potent agents with less side effects.
In my talk, I will present some of the challenges a drug designer is faced with, and will demonstrate how Computer Science can be used to adress them."