Orr Ravitz joined SimBioSys
Hi,
Allow me to Introduce myself. My name is Orr Ravitz, and I recently joined SimBioSys as an applications scientist. I was fortunate to join the company in a time of significant developments: in the next few months we will launch improved versions of our drug discovery tools, eHiTS, eHiTS Lightning, and LASSO, we are in the process of introducing to the market our unique synthetic route designer, ARChem, and we also have several innovative scientific concepts in the pipeline. The fact that this is happening while the pharmaceutical industry is undergoing dramatic restructuring, offers SimBioSys an opportunity to make a huge impact on the process of drug discovery and drug development.
My professional path has been, in a sense, a small-scale analogy to the evolution of computational chemistry as many of us envision it. I started in basic research, working with pen and paper on mathematical problems in quantum dynamics. I then switched to applying computational quantum methods to study spectral tuning mechanisms in rhodopsin, and rhodopsin isoforms. And in my current incarnation, I am participating in the grand endeavour of developing and delivering tools for computer aided drug design. This gradual transition from working on scientific problems from a pure academic perspective, to working on scientific products with very concrete applications is both intriguing and challenging.
It is no secret that we are in trying times for the pharmaceutical industry. In spite of tremendous amounts of public and private money spent on R&D, we see very few new drugs entering the market each year. It may be argued that this is partly because of the business models of the pharmaceutical companies, but, to a large extent, this is a genuine manifestation for our (much) less-than-perfect ability to translate our scientific knowledge, understanding and capabilities to practical solutions to acute problems. This is where SimBioSys plays a crucial role.
SimBioSys is providing cutting edge solutions (see picture below)
to reduce the costs and enhance the capabilities of drug discovery and drug development. I strongly believe that computational tools are going to become an increasingly dominant means to improve the scientific and financial performance of pharmaceutical companies. SimBioSys, with a team that offers a well balanced combination of computer scientists and chemists, is in a position to become one of the leaders in the area. I hope to be able to add my own perspective to this group of talented people, and I further hope to maintain an open dialogue with our clients, and with people of the chemistry community and learn how SimBioSys can better serve the noble cause of finding cures for diseases and improving the well being of people.
posted by Orr