Mod/Sim: “This is the Way” for Alexandre Cabayé
The BIOVIA Science Council strives to advance the highest levels of scientific research and innovation in Life and Materials Sciences across the industries served by Dassault Systèmes. For example, BIOVIA scientists are currently working alongside the worldwide scientific community to gain a deeper understanding of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. ” (February 2020).
Alexandre also contributed to another paper (co-authored by Dr. Acher and members of the BIOVIA Science Council) addressing “Rational Design of Subtype-selective Orthosteric Agonists for Group III Metabotropic Glutamate Receptors” (2019, see below). Here the authors used modeling and simulation to create candidate drugs for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease. The mod/sim aided their understanding of how and why their drugs worked, helping to guide them in optimizing their current collection of candidate drugs and in creating new candidates.
A CIFRE scholarship (which stands for “Conventions Industrielles de Formation par la Recherche”) partially funds Alexandre’s research. The French Ministry of Higher Education and Research sponsors this doctoral training program within a public-private partnership framework. Alexandre is one of more than 20,000 Ph.D. students who have benefited from CIFRE fellowships supporting doctoral studies since the program began in 1981.
When he is not in the lab, Alexandre can always find other things to do. “As a Parisian, I’m lucky to live in a city where there are always new and interesting museum exhibitions, so occasionally I go to one of them. And when there’s time for a winter vacation, I like to ski in the French Alps, I love the mountains there and the slopes are just insane!”
When asked how BIOVIA helps him in his projects, Alexandre points to the extensive capabilities of BIOVIA software. “Discovery Studio is my everyday tool, and I would not have been able to carry out such ambitious projects without it. It allows me to build and simulate 3D models as well as perform some basic analysis. When I need more complex analysis, I use BIOVIA Pipeline Pilot to build protocols that save precious time.”
Alexandre concludes:
When I think about virtual approaches to life science research, all I can say is — This is the way!