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Sparking drug discoveries

Sparking drug discoveries

Posted on July 22nd, 2018

Academic research catches fire

On a spring day last year, Jane Tseng, PhD, was visiting Stanford to make connections to aid her drug development quest. The drug would be based on discoveries made by Tseng and other researchers at National Taiwan University.

The compound already looked promising for helping people with schizophrenia and two other neurological conditions, and she wondered if it could help others. But one condition the professor of computer science was definitely not interested in pitting the drug candidate against was autism.

“Because autism is a spectrum, it’s going to be hard to test a drug and show it helps. Very hard,” she said.

Still, when Kevin Grimes, MD, co-director of Stanford’s SPARK drug development program, asked her if she’d like to talk with a Stanford autism expert, she said yes.

“SPARK sparks things. I was at Stanford to get new ideas, so I talked with him,” Tseng said.

Read on to learn more about Tseng’s work and the SPARK program