Research of AIMMS
Despite major progress in public health, human beings are still exposed to a large number of health hazards: for instance, our increasing mobility and growing resistance to antibiotic treatments has resulted in a rapid spread of infections. Furthermore, in an aging population, age-related malfunctions are inevitably on the rise. Finally, the prevalence of high-burden diseases is growing. Even in the case of relatively well-known disorders, current therapies are effective in only 40 per cent of patient populations, while we still have no effective therapies for many diseases. We are thus presented with a largely unmet societal need, and the corresponding scientific challenges, to explain the molecular mechanisms of diseases in order to develop new small molecule drugs, as well as other therapeutic and diagnostic strategies.
The last decade has witnessed important technological breakthroughs in molecular and cellular biology, (combinatorial and designer) synthesis and chemical space, bioanalytical methodologies, including high-throughput screening and various ~omics approaches and sequencing methods, including an increasing computational power. An increased understanding of the biological fate and the effects of medicines have also advanced the relevance of molecular medicine. Lately, a new perspective, concerning integration (instead of reduction) to study complex biological systems has been developed: the systems biology of molecular networks. These developments have fuelled a general optimism that the treatment of diseases can be addressed with more comprehensive and sophisticated strategies, made possible by a better understanding of health and disease, from the molecular- up to the systems level.
Universities can play a crucial role in this process by integrating and translating basic research in life- and exact sciences into their application in the development of new drugs, therapeutics (e.g. antibodies and other biologics) and diagnostics. And conversely, related questions can be translated from the application domain into new basic research. Unravelling the molecular mechanisms of diseases and the development of new drugs, therapeutics and diagnostics both depend on effective, synergistic integration of multiple scientific disciplines in a sophisticated research infrastructure obased on state-of-the-art technology.
The Amsterdam Institute for Molecules, Medicines and Systems (AIMMS) strives to vertically integrate multiple scientific disciplines at the VU Campus into one institute, covering the different molecular, cellular and translational stages in the development of new drugs, therapeutics (e.g. antibodies and other biologics) and molecular diagnostics, thereby adding significant value to the current research. Apart from established discovery and development strategies, it will use systems biology and network approaches to obtain, integrate and analyse complex data from multiple experimental sources using interdisciplinary tools.
