RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC – The Hamner Institutes for Health Sciences (www.thehamner.org) announces the release of DILIsym^® v2A. DILIsym^® software is developed and released as part of the DILI-sim Initiative (www.dilisym.com), an effort to develop a mathematical, mechanistic model of drug-induced liver injury chaired by Dr. Paul B. Watkins. DILIsym^® v2A was made available to all DILI-sim Initiative industry members as of April 10th, 2013.

DILIsym^® v2A expands upon the DILIsym^® v1A representation of drug-induced liver injury in three key areas: mitochondria, bile acids, and innate immunity. The expanded representation of mitochondrial biology extends the model scope to include mitochondrial respiration, proton-motive force, and ATP production in addition to compounds that disrupt these processes. The expanded innate immune response extends the model scope to include macrophage (Kupffer) and liver sinusoidal endothelial cell (LSEC) populations, as well as several specific immune mediators. Lastly, the updated model of bile acid biology extends the model scope to include the dynamics of specific bile acids implicated in hepatotoxicity. The model also now incorporates bile acid synthesis, uptake, recirculation, and efflux, including key transporters (e.g., bile salt efflux pump or BSEP).

“We are pleased with the progress and advances unveiled in the new version of DILIsym^® software,” said Dr. Paul Watkins, director of The Hamner-University of North Carolina Institute for Drug Safety Sciences, and The DILI-sim Initiative. “The initial response from our industry partners has been quite positive, and we look forward to working with them to continue improving the model to better understand, and ultimately predict, adverse events in the liver.”  

ABOUT THE DILI-SIM INITIATIVE

The DILI-sim Initiative is a pre-competitive partnership between The Hamner and a diverse set of stakeholders to develop a computational model that will predict whether new drug candidates will cause drug-induced liver injury (DILI) in patients. The goals of the Initiative are to improve patient safety, reduce the need for animal testing, and reduce the costs and time necessary to develop new drugs. It is the intent of the DILI-sim Initiative to make the model, in the form of DILIsym^® software, broadly available so that it may be used by the pharmaceutical industry and other entities in academia, government, and industry. The Initiative is led by Dr. Paul B. Watkins, Director of the Hamner-University of North Carolina Institute for Drug Safety Sciences, located on the campus of The Hamner Institutes for Health Sciences in the heart of Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. The goal for the DILI-sim Initiative is for DILIsym^® to be a routinely used component of the pharmaceutical industry’s preclinical safety toolbox by 2014. For more information, please visit www.dilisym.com.

ABOUT THE HAMNER INSTITUTES FOR HEALTH SCIENCES

The Hamner Institutes for Health Sciences is a nonprofit translational biomedical research institute located on an open, multidisciplinary campus in North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park. Building upon 35 years of research excellence in toxicology, The Hamner works on drug and chemical safety in collaboration with academic, corporate and government partners. Novel technologies used at The Hamner include genomic and bioinformatic approaches for improving toxicity testing, in silico models for predictive toxicology, in vitro models that utilize human cells or cell lines to evaluate perturbations of cellular responses, and in vivo models to elucidate genes that play a role in susceptibility to drug-induced toxicities. For more information, please visit www.thehamner.org.