Certara, the global leader in model-informed drug development, regulatory science, real-world evidence and market access services, today announced the launch of version 19.1 of its flagship scientific informatics platform D360.
D360 v19.1 expands the platform’s capabilities for biologists and biologics scientists, deepens support for small molecule chemistry, and provides workflow enhancements based on community feedback. This latest version of D360 takes its name from its calendar release date; this is the first new release in 2019.
The role of drug discovery scientists has expanded and evolved during the past few years due to the dramatic increase in research into new therapeutic modalities. Rapid scientific advances have resulted in a range of new therapies; peptides, oligonucleotides, antibodies and other biologic therapeutics. There were a record-breaking 17 new biologics approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in 2018. Certara’s roadmap for D360 aligns to those growth areas, adding analytic capabilities for both small molecules and biologics.
‘Based on feedback from the discovery research community, we believe that D360 is the premier data delivery and analytics application for improving go/no-go decisions in drug discovery. D360 offers users superior data access, analytics, visualisation and collaboration tools in a single package. We now have more than 6,000 active users across the small molecule, biologics and preclinical data domains at pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies of all sizes,’ said David Lowis, senior director of D360 at Certara.
‘As the market evolves, we collaborate closely with our customers to ensure that D360 meets their current and future needs. We regularly consult with scientists through our international D360 User Group Meetings. Five of the top 10 pharmaceutical companies are active members of the D360 Customer Steering Committee, helping to drive the product’s strategic direction. As a result of customer requests, this is the second consecutive D360 release to offer expanded biologics capabilities, providing additional analysis tools to drive oligonucleotide, peptide, and monoclonal antibody research,’ said Dr Lowis.
D360 v19.1 includes the following enhancements:
Expanded Workflows
D360 v19.1 provides new capabilities that expand its applicability to a wider group of research scientists. Biologics researchers are aided by the inclusion of a data domain concept that makes it vastly simpler for them to get to the data they need in the format they want. Visualisation of dose-response curves, both single and overlaid, allows biologists and project teams to better understand the quality of assay data. A new bioprofile summary view can be used to rapidly and easily assess the complete bioprofile of tested substances to understand potential liabilities, allowing undesirable biological effects to be designed out.
Enhanced Data Visualisation Capabilities
D360 v19.1 includes improved visualisation tools to help scientists better understand their data in a therapeutic context and make more informed decisions, including go /no-go decisions, faster. Histogram visualisation is significantly upgraded in this new release and a new bar chart visualiser is provided. In addition, functional updates have been made to chart legends, equation display and axis options on existing charts making D360’s data visualisation capabilities simultaneously easier to use and more capable.
Easier Configuration
D360 has always provided scientists with self-service data access. D360’s data configuration is at the heart of this capability and D360 v19.1 improves this key area by allowing large, complex data catalogues to be split over multiple files and the reload of an updated configuration to the client without the need to restart. These changes greatly simplify data catalogue maintenance, further improving the overall low maintenance overhead of a D360 deployment.
These advances ensure that D360 continues to meet scientists’ research needs, whether they are studying small molecules or biologics, from discovery through to the pre-clinical stages.
