Multivariate experiments, where many parameters are investigated simultaneously, have been shown to cut development times by parallelizing hypothesis testing. They also identify the critical interactions between parameters, rapidly identifying and optimizing interdependencies that are ubiquitous in biological systems.
When multivariate experimental design is combined with automation, extremely powerful and incisive experiments are possible, giving definitive results in highly compressed timelines, which takes us a long way in speeding up early drug discovery.