EP 118: The role of genetics in drug discovery and development with Dr. Matt Nelson

The Genetics Podcast

Summary:

0:00 Introduction

5:45 Lessons learned from 15 years at GSK: How has genetics and drug discovery evolved over time?

8:10 Matt’s seminal 2015 paper: Quantifying the impact of human genetic evidence on the probability of success in drug development

11:40 Which types of genetic evidence are the best drivers of success in clinical trials?

13:30 Matt’s 2023 paper ‘Refining the Impact of Genetic Evidence on Clinical Success’

18:15 Comparing the value of scale in patient-reported data and genotype arrays (e.g. 23andMe) to deep clinical phenotypes and exomes (e.g. UKBiobank)

23:00 The next leaps forward in newborn and population screening

23:50 Targeting genetic subtypes in drug development

26:15 The role of polygenic risk scores in drug development and the early proof of concept studies

28:15 Proactive trial design to exclude participants who might experience safety risks

30:20 Gene editing technologies for rare Mendelian diseases and Verve Therapeutics approach to treating familial hypercholesterolemia

33:40 Looking forward: The role of drug development in preventing disease

35:50 Matt’s transition from GSK to Deerfield and GenScience

38:00 How the role of genetics and genomics in healthcare investment has changed over the past 10 years

39:00 Genscience’s vision to use genomic data for drug discovery and decision-making

43:25 Looking forward: Linking genetic data to electronic health records in the US and Europe

47:50 Closing Remarks