Transforming drug discovery with next-gen search

Setting the Scene

Drug discovery is one of the most data-intensive and complex processes in the life sciences industry. Researchers must navigate decades of experimental results, ongoing studies, and past campaigns to inform the next breakthrough. In this environment, the ability to search, connect, and interpret vast datasets quickly is not just convenient, it is critical to accelerating innovation, reducing costs, and maintaining competitive advantage. 

AbbVie’s internal drug discovery, TCPR2, platform plays a central role in this mission, serving as a single place where scientists and researchers can access past and current drug projects, test results, campaigns, and related data. 

To stay effective, the platform needed to evolve beyond fast, relevance-based search and enable granular property-specific queries (such as identifying projects by molecule or target). At the same time, researchers required a seamless way to export results into Excel (XLSX) with multiple worksheets and rich formatting for deeper analysis and reporting. 

The Challenges

AbbVie needed to go beyond standard search features to enable property-specific queries across deeply nested JSON data. Meeting this requirement meant extending MarkLogic’s powerful foundation with a custom approach tailored for scientific discovery. 

Another challenge lay in the export requirements. Researchers requested the ability to export results into Excel (XLSX) with multiple worksheets and custom layouts. The existing CSV outputs were too limited for scientific analysis and reporting, and AbbVie needed a richer solution that would meet the expectations of its research teams. 

At the same time, the team was keen on avoiding over-engineering. While new features were essential, it was equally important to deliver them without introducing unnecessary external services or complexity, which could create additional points of failure and inflate maintenance costs. 

Finally, sustainability was a critical priority. AbbVie required a design that was extensible and reusable so that future enhancements could be delivered quickly and cost-effectively. Instead of facing repeated cycles of rework, the company wanted a framework that would continue to evolve with its scientific needs.

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The Solution

Building on the strong MarkLogic Foundation, Datavid implemented a custom extensible search API and XLSX export capability to meet AbbVie’s needs for flexibility and scientific precision. 

• Triplefication for Property Search 
  JSON documents were transformed into RDF triples capturing both values and their position in the hierarchy. This allowed AbbVie to translate “dotted path” queries (e.g., project.target.molecule = glucose) into SPARQL queries, extending MarkLogic’s standard search capabilities. 

• Programmatic TDE Generation 
  TDE templates were programmatically generated from JSON schemas, enabling seamless updates to entities and reducing manual maintenance. 

• Custom Search API 
  A flexible API combined standard MarkLogic search with the new triple-based property search, allowing scientists to query across complex structures without constant index or schema rework. 

• XLSX Export Library 
  A lightweight XQuery library (based on the Open XML standard) was developed to generate multi-sheet, styled Excel outputs, avoiding reliance on external services. 

• Minimal Integration Impact 
  Data continued to flow into MarkLogic via custom REST extensions, ensuring that no downstream systems were disrupted.