Logic of drug discovery: A descriptive model of a practice in neuropharmacology

Abstract

This paper reports on a logical model of the rational use of theory in a particular discovery problem in neuropharmacology, based on a case study of a practice of drug research for Parkinson’s disease. This analysis describes how qualitative assumptions about the relation between properties of the nervous system are used to search for drug leads, i.e. properties for possible drug interventions. The logical structure of this drug lead discovery problem is briefly described together with the structure of some assumptions from the case study. It is briefly discussed how computational tools where used to explore these assumptions, and how they could possibly aid discovery in this domain.