Chemotherapeutic Drug Discovery

Data Science / Medical Research

The Game: Wiley Wizard is a charming, classic arcade-style, shooter that features a spell-wielding hero utilizing wits and wizardry to free spirits trapped by a shadowy figure. Fend off the Fiend’s spooky minions and travel through magic portals to the spirit realm where you tune mystic crystals to these spirits’ energy in order to save them.

The Science: The gameplay in Wiley Wizard, coupled with BALANCED’s HEWMEN^® technology platform, allows the player to interact with a data clustering problem related to drug-resistant cancer research being conducted by Southern Methodist University’s Department of Biological Sciences. While the player is positioning the game-world tuning crystals, they are helping group properties of known medical compounds. These game groupings help isolate promising combinations for which to conduct laboratory tests. In this way, the researchers can focus their time and resources on testing combinations that have the highest likelihood of positive outcomes.