The paper identifies that while company rules, processes and systems seek to foster objectivity, common biases in decision making may hinder achievement of best possible performance. Psychological research proves again and again that people are bad at making complex decisions where there is risk involved. The paper demonstrates how better individual and team decision-making within drug discovery would enhance R&D performance. Feedback on problem solving performance could be one of the simplest measures to improve selection of compounds and effective screening sequences. The study also highlights that computational tools provide a more scientific approach that encourages objective consideration of all of the available information, helping scientists make decisions that are both balanced and rational, in the domains of library design, compound selection, screening, profiling and experimental design.

Drug discovery leaders receive much conflicting advice on possible ways to improve productivity and restore the rate of successful drug launches. Continuing technology investment, outsourcing of shared services and formation of smaller, disease-specific units, which bring researchers closer to clinicians are all current trends. However, senior management cannot afford to ignore the human dimension – are their teams making the best possible decisions given the information available to them, or that could be available given the right experiments?

Dr. Andrew Chadwick, Principal Consultant, Tessella, explains, “Past experience shows that many practical researchers remain baffled or confused by probabilistic models and so shy away from formal decision analysis. Yet reliance on gut instinct tends to lead to consistent patterns of mistakes. Discovery groups need to define and encourage ‘best practice’ to conduct projects in a way that captures wider company and industry experience. There is a need to make this as simple and accessible as possible via a more scientific approach.”

Good decision-making is central to drug discovery success and the new paper demonstrates that the interactive software platform, StarDrop from Optibrium, can help drug discovery scientists to guide their scientific judgment to make decisions with greater success. Dr. Matthew Segall, CEO of Optibrium, explains, “StarDrop can help drug discovery scientists to guide their decisions while designing and prioritising molecules with the aim of achieving an optimal balance of properties. The probabilistic scoring approach, employed by the StarDrop software platform to guide compound selection decisions in drug discovery, indicates the likelihood of success of a compound against a set of property criteria, given the available property data for that compound and taking into account the underlying uncertainty in the data.”

The intuitive software provides a decision-making framework, offering advantages over traditional predictive modelling platforms as it specifically helps users to identify chemistries with a high chance of success and focus expensive in-house resources. Used by pharmaceutical and biotech companies and research establishments globally, StarDrop guides compound selection and design decisions in all stages of drug discovery. The software provides a comprehensive range of features to support design and prioritization of high quality compounds including: probabilistic scoring; chemical space and glowing molecule visualisation; ADME QSAR models; P450 metabolism models and automatic model building.

To learn more about how StarDrop can aid good decision-making in drug discovery please call Optibrium on +44 (0) 1223 815 900, email info@optibrium.com or visit www.optibrium.com.

About Optibrium Ltd

Optibrium (www.optibrium.com) is dedicated to providing software to guide decisions involving complex, uncertain data in an intuitive way. Optibrium’s primary product, StarDrop, is focused on the drug discovery industry, helping scientists to guide decisions in the design and selection of high quality drug candidates. Optibrium was founded in 2009 as a spin-out of one of Galapagos service divisions: BioFocus. The founding group was responsible for the development of StarDrop from 2003 and, prior to this, research and development of related technologies since 1994. Based in Cambridge, UK, Optibrium has a global customer base ranging from top-ten pharmaceutical companies to small biotechs and academic groups.

For further press information please contact: Sarah Evans, The Scott Partnership, 1 Whiteside, Station Road, Holmes Chapel, Cheshire CW4 8AA, UK Tel: + 44 1477 539539 Fax: +44 1477 539 540 E-mail: optibrium@scottpr.com

About Tessella

For decades, Tessella has been successfully delivering IT and consulting services to world leaders in R&D, science and engineering. We enable our clients in life sciences, energy, the public sector, and consumer industries to achieve a wide range of objectives, including, forecasting floods, developing fusion power, enhancing military sensor capability, improving drug discovery and development efficiency, and reducing risk to health and the environment in the extraction and production of oil and gas. With offices in Europe and North America, global companies rely on Tessella for business critical assignments.

Media contact

Christina Tealdi
PR/AR Executive | Tessella

D: +44 (0) 1235 546 638
M: +44 (0) 779 934 6453

E: christina.tealdi@tessella.com

Better individual and team decision-making should enhance R&D performance. Reproducible biases affecting human decision-making, known as cognitive biases, are well understood by psychologists.  These threaten objectivity and balance and so are credible causes for continuing unpleasant surprises in Development and high operating costs…read more

Oxford, UK | 29 June 2010. Tessella, the information technology and consulting services company selected by R&D, science and engineering leaders for business-critical assignments is pleased to announce the appointment of Stan Bradbury as a consultant assisting the Tessella Energy team.

Bradbury has decades of experience in the oil and gas sector: reaching the heights of CIO for Shell Global Solutions. He is now an independent consultant and able to provide advice and consultancy to Tessella as part of its drive to expand our energy business over the next two years.

Stan said: “I am very pleased to be helping Tessella with their ambitious growth plans: I believe their mix of technical IT skills, domain knowledge and the ability of Tessella consultants to find novel solutions to technical problems will bring real value to the energy sector”.

Alan Gaby, Director at Tessella said: “It is great to have Stan onboard. His wealth of experience in driving the IT of a major energy business will help us focus on what is important to these clients and how we can help them gain real value from technical IT”.

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Notes to the Editor

About Tessella

For decades, Tessella has been successfully delivering IT and consulting services to world leaders in R&D, science and engineering. We enable our clients in life sciences, energy, the public sector, and consumer industries to achieve a wide range of objectives, including, forecasting floods, developing fusion power, enhancing military sensor capability, improving drug discovery and development efficiency, and reducing risk to health and the environment in the extraction and production of oil and gas. With offices in Europe and North America, global companies rely on Tessella for business critical assignments.

Media Contact at Tessella
Christina Tealdi | PR/AR Executive | Phone: +44 (0) 1235 555511 | Mobile: + 44 (0) 779 9346453

Middlesbrough and Oxford, UK | June 29 2010. Industrial Technology Systems Ltd (ITS), the real-time IT, database and process control systems integrator with extensive experience in the nuclear sector and Tessella, the information technology and consulting services company selected by R&D, science and engineering leaders for business-critical assignments, have been selected for a major framework agreement with Sellafield Ltd, for the provision of replacements of and upgrades to existing control and IT systems at their Cumbria site.

Sellafield Ltd introduced the framework agreement to reduce the project and procurement time it takes to award control system contracts. The aim of Sellafield Ltd is to standardise the pricing, documentation, execution and ongoing support approach for the diverse range of projects through this collaborative working agreement between Sellafield Ltd and its suppliers.

To successfully qualify for the framework agreement, ITS and Tessella completed a significant invitation to tender process. Part of the submission was a proposal for the upgrade of the first control system planned for replacement. This aspect had a major part in determining which companies would become part of the framework agreement, with the technical and commercial aspects of this being reviewed and taken into account in the overall decision making process. ITS and Tessella also had to supply comprehensive supportive literature, to demonstrate strengths in the following key areas:

• Evidence of a proven track record of delivering control systems in regulated environments

• Management and provision of suitably qualified experienced personnel

• Evidence of innovative solutions and working relationships with other customers

• Capability to undertake the first control system upgrade project

• Evidence of systematic and transparent cost charging processes

• QA processes

• Environmental, health and safety management record

• Socio economics

• Compliance with Sellafield Ltd code of ethics

Both ITS and Tessella specialise in the design and integration of real-time IT, database and control systems and a range of services including maintenance and 24-7 call out support, for highly demanding, regulated sectors including, pharmaceutical, medical device, nuclear and chemical. ITS also supplies robust non-contact vision inspection systems, fuel tracking solutions and legacy system support services to these industries.

ITS’ agreement with Tessella brings together the strengths of the two teams to form a large and varied skill base. The consortium, as well as having complementary skill sets, also has an overlap in control systems expertise which adds value as there is a common understanding already existing for the main functionality of projects to be completed under the framework agreement. With a track record of over 95 projects delivered in the nuclear sector, ITS offers a wealth of industry experience to complement the skill set.

The companies’ vendor independence allows the consortium to offer the most cost effective solutions that are best for each client, whether a commercial off the shelf product or a bespoke solution. More than 80% of ITS and Tessella order book is repeat business from satisfied clients who have experienced their ability to consistently deliver.

The ITS and Tessella consortium has partnered with Thales Information Systems to offer extensive innovative experience in obsolescence strategies to Sellafield. Thales has developed its own methodology for addressing systems obsolescence within large and complex regulated industries. Tessella and Thales have worked closely together on previous projects and continue to do so in various sectors. This existing working relationship is an important factor in the overall ITS, Tessella and Thales team.

Commenting on the framework Malcolm Knott, Managing Director of ITS, explains, “We see the opportunity to work on projects in this manner with Sellafield Ltd as a massive opportunity to develop and widen our relationship with people onsite. We have agreements like this with a number of other customers and each brings with it fresh challenges, but ultimately make us as a better company. We learn as a supplier and as a partner. Frameworks like this do work and we’ve been keen to strike up this type of relationship since we started, and that’s why we really wanted to be selected by Sellafield Ltd. The buzz it gave everyone when we announced to the staff that we’d been successful was amazing; colleagues have been making all sorts of suggestions to get more involved with Sellafield, knowing that there is a very good reason to go the extra mile.”

Peter Roberts, Business Development Manager at Tessella added, “Securing this Framework is another milestone in Tessella’s continued growth within the civil nuclear sector. Sellafield Ltd is an important client for the company and one with which we aim to develop a long-term relationship in several areas related to software and information technology. It is also a significant project for Tessella as we develop our successful collaboration with ITS in the field of control systems”.

ITS and Tessella believe that the consortium will provide the strength in depth required for any control and IT system project to be completed successfully under the framework agreement. Both companies have endeavoured to build teams that have all the capability and experience Sellafield Ltd needs and their combined strength is formidable. Through its experience across many sectors the consortium can provide the innovation required to address the obsolescence challenges, and each partner brings a unique, complementary and significant value to the team.

And this framework is proving to be the beginning of a fruitful relationship, with all the companies involved already identifying other customers where this consortia approach will add value.

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About Tessella

For decades, Tessella has been successfully delivering IT and consulting services to world leaders in R&D, science and engineering. We enable our clients in life sciences, energy, the public sector, and consumer industries to achieve a wide range of objectives, including, forecasting floods, developing fusion power, enhancing military sensor capability, improving drug discovery and development efficiency, and reducing risk to health and the environment in the extraction and production of oil and gas. With offices in Europe and North America, global companies rely on Tessella for business critical assignments.

Media Contact at Tessella

Christina Tealdi | PR/AR Executive | Phone: +44 (0) 1235 555511 | Mobile: + 44 (0) 779 9346453

About Industrial Technology Systems Ltd

Established in 1991, Industrial Technology Systems Ltd (ITS) is an independent systems integrator, specialising in the design and implementation of automation, control, IT and management information systems. ITS has a proven track record in supplying innovative, engineering solutions that provide real business value to customers in highly regulated industries including AstraZeneca, Becton Dickinson, INS Innovation, Magnox, Piramal Healthcare and Sellafield Ltd.

ITS has been working in the nuclear industry for over 13 years and has successfully completed over 95 projects in the sector, from feasibility studies and legacy system replacements through to the design and delivery of large SCADA and PLC systems, fuel tracking systems and maintenance contracts.

ITS has strong partnership agreements with many major control systems manufacturers including Rockwell, Wonderware, Siemens, Honeywell and GE Fanuc. This flexibility allows ITS to offer the most innovative and appropriate solutions to meet each customer’s requirement.

Further information available at www.its-ltd.co.uk

Media contact at ITS

Trina Ives | Marketing Executive | Phone 44 (0) 1642 222232 | t-ives@its-ltd.co.uk

• What are the major conclusions of the guidance?
• How does the guidance affect the future of clinical design?
• Is it positive or negative for adaptive designs?
• What role does Bayesian play in the guidance…if any?
• What role, if any, does simulation play in the guidance?
• Why has Phase III been so clearly differentiated from earlier phases in the guidance?

Play the webinar

Tessella, an IT and consulting services company that provides digital archiving technology, is addressing the problem of long-term digital preservation. Its Safety Deposit Box (SDB) offering enables organizations to store and preserve digital information and, more importantly, to access this information even after several years…read more

Päivi Happonen, Development Director of The Finnish Archives, said; “The Finnish Archives’ task is to ensure that records belonging to the national cultural heritage are preserved. One of the many key reasons that we chose Tessella and Tieto was their proven track record of delivery.”

Sissi Kolbe, Tieto’s Director of Business Development in Information Management is delighted to continue working with Tessella; “Tieto always picks best of breed solutions and Tessella’s SDB is the perfect choice. This project follows on from our successful delivery of SDB to the National Archives of Estonia and we hope to further expand our operations with Tessella”.

Jon Tilbury, Tessella’s Director responsible for archiving technology, said; “We are very pleased to be working with The Finnish Archives and look forward to their input in the SDB User Group. They will become the ninth organisation to deploy SDB which is proving to be the long term preservation solution of choice in this demanding sector.”

Tilbury added: “We are again delighted to be using Tieto’s expertise in electronic content management and their understanding of how Nordic countries operate. We now have two successful collaborations underway in Estonia and Finland and hope to add many more”.

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Notes to the Editor

About Tieto

Tieto is an IT service company providing IT, R&D and consulting services. With approximately 17 000 experts, we are among the leading IT service companies in Northern Europe and the global leader in selected segments. We specialize in areas where we have the deepest understanding of our customers’ businesses and needs. Our superior customer centricity and expertise in digital services set us apart from our competitors.

Further information available at www.tieto.com

About Tessella

Tessella is a world leader in the provision of Digital Archiving technologies, working with major governments worldwide. For more information about digital archiving solutions, visit www.digital-preservation.com

For decades, Tessella has been successfully delivering IT and consulting services to world leaders in R&D, science and engineering. We enable our clients in life sciences, energy, the public sector, and consumer industries to achieve a wide range of objectives, including, forecasting floods, developing fusion power, enhancing military sensor capability, improving drug discovery and development efficiency, and reducing risk to health and the environment in the extraction and production of oil and gas. With offices in Europe and North America, global companies rely on Tessella for business critical assignments.

Further information available at www.tessella.com

Media Contact

Tessella | Christina Tealdi | PR/AR Executive

Phone: +44 (0) 1235 555511 | Mobile: + 44 (0) 779 9346453 |Christina.tealdi@tessella.com

Currently, two versions of Robot Assistant have been developed, the Falcon Filtration Robot Assistant and the Eagle Extraction Robot Assistant. These state-of-the-art platforms collect all the data needed to deliver understanding of filtration and washing and liquid-liquid extraction processes. The key to their capability is on-board machine vision, which is used in a variety ways within the system. As well as capturing images of key procedures and generating information on rate of change, the data gathered is used for critical real-time decision making, whereby the next steps in the process are determined via automated feedback loops.

In order to fully exploit all the data collected, an automated reporting system has been developed with Tessella. Following automatic extraction of the data to a searchable database, user specified reports are created. These include appropriate data manipulation and calculations to generate, for example, cake resistance, cake compressibility and filtration rate graphs. The reporting software can be standalone, or can be networked to incorporate experiments from a number of systems.

The downstream unit operations Robot Assistant addresses are rarely thoroughly investigated as the tests are cumbersome and slow to carry out, and problems with the process may only become apparent on transfer to manufacturing scale. The Robot Assistant offers process R&D groups both the capability and the capacity needed to gain full process understanding, to challenge the limitations to the scale-up of downstream processing methods and so to design robust industrial processes.

It’s clear that by combining clever hardware solutions, with novel machine vision applications and appropriate reporting software, downstream processing operations within the chemical industry really can be more manageable. – and the automated organic chemistry technician is a reality.

For a case study describing the Falcon Filtration Robot Assistant and the automated reporting software please visit http://www.cambridgereactordesign.com/prod_eagle_falcon.html