The aim of a molecular modeler in pharmaceutical industry is not only to help understand the nature of the generated data across different research groups in a simplified manner, but also use this knowledge data base to further help speed-up drug discovery process, opines Dr V Sreedhara Rao, Ranbaxy Laboratories, Gurgaon.

Molecular modelers bring the data generated in multiple dimensions to an easily conveyable 2-dimensional or 3-dimensional space for simple understanding, better utilization and elucidation.

Due to the diverse nature of molecular modeling applications pertinent to pharmaceutical industry, molecular modelers constantly interact with diverse departments such as biology, chemistry, pharmacology, toxicology and IT.

By careful mixing of the data generated from various sources, molecular modelers provide useful information that helps all the research departments involved in drug discovery in minimizing risks, efforts, and the cost involved in drug discovery. Further, they also have their contribution in the rational path of drug design and discovery, he said.