The common aims of early-phase research centre around helping to define the safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetics of a drug at single or multiple doses (or even multiple formulations) typically administered in ascending doses. These early phase studies are sometimes referred to as “cohort” studies as they are characterised by a relatively small number of subjects being enrolled for each dose or cohort across one or more sites. Natalia E. Drosopoulou, PhD, Senior Director of Project Management in Neuroscience at Worldwide Clinical Trials, and Henry J. Riordan, PhD, Executive Vice President of Medical and Scientific Affairs and Global Lead for Neuroscience at Worldwide Clinical Trials, focus on technology-assisted cohort optimisation.