Drug repurposing in the era of large-scale observational and genetic data
Contact person: Hedvig Marie Egeland Nordeng
Keywords: Drug repurposing, bioinformatics, pharmacotherapy, genetic epidemiology
Research group(s): PharmaSafe
Department of Pharmacy
Repurposing existing drugs has promising potential to tackle mental disorders that are difficult-to-treat and resistant to current treatment strategies. This is especially important for special populations who remain under-prioritized in clinical drug trials. The standard development of new pharmacological treatment takes decades. Hence, we need to re-think our methodological approaches. By applying novel data science methods such as Drug Target Mendelian Randomization and Target Trial Emulation, we will be better positioned to evaluate whether existing drugs originally approved for other indications could be repurposed as novel effective and safe therapeutics for difficult-to-treat mental illnesses. We will capitalize on existing, large-scale, national health registries in Norway and Denmark, linked to the large population-based cohorts (i) The Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort (MoBa) and (ii) The Tr?ndelag Health Study (The HUNT Study), linked to genetic data within MoBa Genetics and HUNT in Norway and iPSYCH2015 in Denmark.
Pharmacy related research topics:
- Drug repurposing
- Drug Target Mendelian Randomization and applied bioinformatics
- Improving timely and personalized pharmacotherapy in real-world setting
Methodological research topics:
- Application of epidemiological target trial emulation method combined with genetic epidemiology
- Bioinformatics for SNPs associated with the target proteins and/or biomarkers, as proxies of drug target perturbation
- Application of Drug Target Mendelian Randomization method in the context of drug research in vulnerable populations (e.g., adolescents, child-bearing aged women)
External partners:
- National Centre for Register-based Research, Aarhus University
- Department of Public Health and Nursing, NTNU, Norwegian University of Science and
- Technology
Mentoring and internship will be offered by a relevant external partner
