Basel, 2001/03/19

Genedata AG, a privately-held Swiss bioinformatics company, has entered into a licensing agreement with the Japanese National Institute of Technology and Evaluation (NITE), a governmental organization, to use Genedata Phylosopher for the computational analysis of the genome sequence data which is being generated in NITE's modern sequencing factory. Genedata's high-throughput software for comparative genomics, Genedata Phylosopher, will be used to functionally characterize and annotate these genomes, which include organisms that are of particular interest for pharmaceutical applications as well as for evolutionary research.

Genedata Phylosopher will analyze the genomes by comparing them with all currently available completely-sequenced genomes, unicellular as well as multicellular organisms. It will result in a full biochemical and cellular characterization of the genes, proteins and biochemical pathways. In particular, the focus of the analysis will be on the functional characterization of the high proportion of genes with unknown function, among which many are expected to be relevant to pathogenicity, while others form the basis for the development of novel antibacterial therapeutics and vaccines. The proprietary Functional Analyst technology of Genedata Phylosopher will enable the scientists at NITE to pinpoint the genetic basis of the differences between all sequenced organisms. Genedata Phylosopher's underlying relational database and project management capabilities will form a sound basis for the growing number of large scale sequencing projects at NITE.

Genedata's CEO, Othmar Pfannes, Ph.D., states: "We are proud to have entered into this license agreement with NITE, a leading Japanese organization in the field of genomic research. This demonstrates the power of Genedata Phylosopher as a high-throughput genome analysis system, which is urgently needed to keep pace with the ever increasing amount of genome sequence data. Genedata Phylosopher is now widely used for the analysis of microorganisms, as well as for the characterization of fungal, plant, animal and the human genomes. It has proven to open up completely new opportunities in drug discovery, diagnostics and metabolic engineering, for both pharmaceutical and agrobiological applications."

Mr. Murakami, product manager of Teijin Systems Technology Ltd. (TST), the Japanese distributor of Genedata's products, states further: "We are proud to include NITE on our customers list. This agreement with NITE represents another major milestone showing Genedata Phylosopher's capabilities also in basic research. Genedata Phylosopher provides NITE's researchers with the means to thoroughly analyze their sequence data in order to acquire a better understanding of bacterial pathogens, a prerequisite for novel pharmaceuticals, and also a better insight into evolutionary processes. Genedata's products will not only accelerate the genomic research at NITE but will also stimulate the whole functional genomics research in Japan."