Biochemical informatics methods for diagnosis and disease management

New technological advances are beginning to have a direct impact on many aspects of healthcare, including screening, diagnosis, treatment, and disease management. A multidisciplinary approach permits the development of sophisticated patient-centered models that rely on bioinformatics, molecular biology, analytical and biochemistry, and healthcare informatics. In the work described here, a decision support model based on neural networks is used to combine results from laboratory tests with clinical parameters to produce a prognostic model for metastatic carcinoma. In addition, techniques for drug design and development are presented that can lead to medications that target specific cancer cells.