Basel, 2001/09/17
After three successful years, Genedata AG and Bayer AG today announced the agreement to significantly extend their collaboration in functional genomics for three more years. The collaboration started in 1998 when Bayer licensed Genedata's in-silico target identification module of Phylosopher in order to accelerate the discovery of novel classes of antibiotics to treat infectious diseases, particularly those caused by pathogens being resistant to current therapies. The extended collaboration covers all fields of comparative genome and expression profiling analysis, with applications in target identification and validation, assay development, compound evaluation and mode-of-action studies for new antibiotic chemotypes.
"Due to our collaboration with Genedata we were able to increase the number of antibacterial target candidates, at the same time significantly improving the quality of those targets entering the product pipeline. The extended collaboration will provide the missing link between chemistry and biology, in order to obtain early decision points for novel development compounds." says Dr. Stefan Wohlfeil, head of anti-infectives research, Bayer. "We look forward to continue our long lasting fruitful collaboration."
In particular, the collaboration will focus on the identification of chemical descriptors to characterize the impacts of drug candidates on the pathogen's ability to infect and survive in the host. The integrated use of Genedata's Expressionist and Phylosopher at Bayer will enable scientists to link a pathogen's expression profile to characteristic phenotypes and therapeutic outcomes, which will allow for an early prioritization of drug development candidates.
"We are proud to provide Bayer with our proprietary technology, a state-of-the-art enterprise solution for anti-infectives research," Genedata's CEO, Othmar Pfannes, Ph.D., says. "The implementation of several new technologies into Phylosopher enables Bayer to more rapidly understand the biological flexibility of pathogens. Target candidates and the small molecules inhibiting their functions can be directly evaluated through mode-of-action studies using gene expression arrays, resulting in a significant acceleration of the drug discovery process. The integrated use of Phylosopher and Expressionist will pave the way for optimized treatments for infectious diseases."