PIONEERING USE OF THE CLOUD FOR DEVELOPMENT OF COLLABORATIVE DRUG DISCOVERY ( CDD ) DATABASE - Collaborative Computational Technologies for Biomedical Research - page 345

Even for neglected disease drug discovery collaborations, prepublication or
prepatent data are still often treated sensitively. However, due to relatively
relaxed commercial considerations, neglected disease researchers are more
open to selective, appropriate sharing. CDD possesses novel functions that can
be used to bring together neglected disease and other researchers from usually
separate areas to collaborate and share compounds and drug discovery data
with major pharmaceutical companies in the research community, which we
hope will ultimately result in long-term improvements in the research enter-
prise and health care delivery.
Researchers working on different neglected diseases rarely coordinate their
activities on shared compound libraries or reagents and generally only share
positive results in publications often without providing their underlying data
sets that would benefi t others working on other neglected diseases. We envis-
age a paradigm shift from the limited private networks (or data silos) that are
predominant today toward a future vision of interconnected, more open, and
more collaborative, scientifi c networks across neglected diseases facilitated by
intuitive scientifi c networking software and a series of rewards that will incen-
tivize data import and selective sharing. Tangible incentives will include
advanced data analysis, data visualization, and collaborative intelligence. As
more researchers adopt the collaborative paradigm, additional researchers will
take notice of the enhanced productivity enjoyed by the early adopters, creat-
ing a classical self-reinforcing growing network. However, one of the rate-
limiting steps here is reinforcement from the funding community. Until the
National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Science Foundation (NSF), and
not for profi ts really start to actively encourage scientifi c collaboration (and
direct their monies to scientists that collaborate), the current situation will not
change. We have seen the European framework grants catalyze academic col-
laboration (http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/home_en.html) and impact research on
diseases such as tuberculosis (http://www.nm4tb.org/).

21.4.1 Malaria and Mtb

Drugs that are active against malaria and Mtb are urgently needed [40]. The
rapid and pervasive emergence of resistance to antimalarial drugs has led to
a reemergence of the disease. Of particular concern are chloroquine-resistant
(CQR) Plasmodium strains. Similarly, the reemergence of Mtb and drug-
resistant strains is of grave concern globally. Recent estimates suggest that
over 2 billion individuals are infected with Mtb [41] with over 1.7 million
deaths per year (latest fi gures for 2008 from the World Health Organization)
or approximately one person every 8 s. Malaria infects 200 million people and

causes over 1 million deaths per year , disproportionately claiming African
children under the age of fi ve.
Discovery of anti-infectious agents is complex and incredibly diffi cult for a
number of reasons that could be addressed if experts and organizations worked
closer together, including:

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