During the next pandemic, a mathematical model could speed up the search for treatment

Medical Xpress September 9, 2024
Leiden University

Do you recall all those drugs that were hastily proposed as potential treatments for COVID-19? In the event of a future pandemic, the goal is to offer an effective treatment more quickly and efficiently. To achieve this, a team led by Coen van Hasselt is developing a platform that can speed up the process from laboratory testing to clinical research using mathematical models.

Drug development is a lengthy, step-by-step process, which can take up to 10 years. It involves trials in the lab, followed by tests on animals, and then progressing from healthy volunteers to real patients. Only when the safety and efficacy are thoroughly assessed can the drug be tested on a large group of patients.

“During a pandemic,...