Basel, 2002/03/11
Genedata AG, the Swiss-based bioinformatics company and AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals have entered into a multi-year collaboration to analyze the genomes of pathogenic bacteria and fungi.
"The collaboration will impact the process of identifying new targets for the development of anti-infective agents. From this agreement, we are looking to gain important information about the phylogenetic relationship of these targets," said Dr. John Rosamond, Director of Genomics, Infection Discovery, Cancer and Infection Research Area, AstraZeneca. "We are proud to have entered this collaboration with AstraZeneca based on the Genedata Phylosopher system, which is now widely used in infectious diseases research. In addition, the system's innovative comparative genomics approach opens up new applications for the functional analysis of fungal, human, plant and animal genomes," adds Genedata's CEO, Othmar Pfannes, Ph.D.
Under terms of the agreement, the bioinformatics software system, Genedata Phylosopher, will be used to analyze the genomes of pharmaceutically relevant pathogens by comparing them with all the currently available and completely sequenced genomes from microbial and higher organisms. This will yield a complete set of protein families and allow the application of tools that go beyond "homology" modeling to phylogenetic pattern matching and metabolic profile analysis. The end result is the classification and functional annotation of previously uncharacterized genes and proteins allowing the identification of new targets for anti-infective development.
The system is set up as an enterprise solution and supports major steps of the drug discovery process ranging from target identification and target validation to assay development. Moreover, the system can be used for mechanism-of-action studies, the identification of specific pathogenicity factors, and for the evaluation and assessment of drug leads.
In recognition of the importance of this and other alliances in the USA, Genedata has formed Genedata USA a fully owned subsidiary, and opened offices in Waltham, MA and San Francisco, CA. The USA offices will provide local specialized service and support to current customers including AstraZeneca. "We are excited about the new offices in the United States which will allow Genedata to bring the highest level of scientific consulting and customized enterprise software along with close customer collaboration and support, that has been the trademark of Genedata in Europe since its inception in 1997" said Genedata USA's President, Andrew DePristo, Ph.D.