drda: An R Package for Dose-Response Data Analysis Using Logistic Functions

Abstract

Analysis of dose-response data is an important step in many scientific disciplines, including but not limited to pharmacology, toxicology, and epidemiology. The R package drda is designed to facilitate the analysis of dose-response data by implementing efficient and accurate functions with a familiar interface. With drda it is possible to fit models by the method of least squares, perform goodness-of-fit tests, and conduct model selection. Compared to other similar packages, drda provides in general more accurate estimates in the least-squares sense. This result is achieved by a smart choice of the starting point in the optimization algorithm and by implementing the Newton method with a trust region with analytical gradients and Hessian matrices. In this article, drda is presented through the description of its methodological components and examples of its user-friendly functions. Performance is evaluated using both synthetic data and a real, large-scale drug sensitivity screening dataset.