Basel, Switzerland, 2006/11/07
Computational biology firm Genedata announces a new collaboration with SysMAP, a joint industry and academic research consortium tasked with enhancing the industrial production of amino acids for pharmaceutical, food and feed applications. Founded and coordinated by leading specialty chemicals producer Degussa AG, the consortium exploits novel experimental and computational methods to probe the biological mechanisms underlying industrial fermentation.
SysMAP stands for “Systems-oriented analysis of the central Metabolism of microbial Amino acid Producers”. The acronym itself captures the scientific scope of this commercially important research project. The consortium has adopted the systems biology approach in the context of microorganisms, which play an increasingly important role in the production of chemicals used in animal feed, certain food and in medicines used to treat human disease. The approach will be used to develop new methods for resolving bottlenecks in the biotechnological production of specialty chemicals.
Genedata provides the computational framework to centrally structure and analyze all research data produced within the consortium. SysMAP’s infrastructure will be built upon Genedata Phylosopher®, the established pathway-centric research information management system, and Genedata Expressionist®, used to process and integrate huge amounts of molecular profiling data. Genedata’s platform enables an efficient collaboration between different groups with expertise ranging from industrial production to molecular biology and computer simulation.
“We were looking for a solution that combines the activities of academic research centers and companies under one roof. Due to our already successful partnership, Genedata, with its established products, were a natural choice for this ambitious scientific project”, explained Dr. Ralf Kelle, Head of Biotechnological Research at Degussa’s Feed Additives Business Unit.
Genedata will be on hand to assist more than a dozen SysMAP research groups to manage and analyze experimental data, and will engage in several software customization projects. Genedata provides an informatics framework for interdisciplinary systems biology projects conducted across multiple sites. “We are proud that Degussa has chosen Genedata for this responsible role within SysMAP”, explained Dr. Othmar Pfannes, CEO of Genedata.
Contact:
Genedata AG
Dr Tobe Freeman
Head of Public Relations
Phone +41 61 697 8510
Fax +41 61 697 7244
Tobe.Freeman@genedata.com
www.genedata.com
Genedata specializes in discovery informatics for biotech, pharmaceuticals and the life sciences. The Company offers expertise in research informatics combined with open and scalable computational solutions. Our solutions include Genedata Phylosopher® for integrating, structuring, and analyzing research data. Genedata Screener® for high throughput screening analysis. And Genedata Expressionist® for omics data integration, processing and analysis. Founded in 1997 as a privately held spin off from Novartis, Genedata is headquartered in Basel, Switzerland and has branches in Munich (Germany), Boston (USA) and San Francisco (USA). The Company is also represented in Japan, Taiwan and Singapore. For more information about Genedata, please visit: www.genedata.com.
Degussa is the global market leader in specialty chemicals. Our business is creating essentials–innovative products and system solutions that make indispensable contributions to our customers’ success. In fiscal 2005 around 44,000 employees worldwide generated sales of 11.8 billion euros and operating profits (EBIT) of 940 million euros.
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