Genedata’s Target Discovery System Chosen as Central Data Management Solution for German Medical Systems Biology Initiative to Study Infectious Diseases of Fungal Pathogens

Munich, Germany — Genedata, a leading provider of advanced software solutions for drug discovery and life science research, today announced that Genedata Phylosopher® has been adopted by the “Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde” project, which is funded by the German Medical Systems Biology (MedSys) initiative. The multidisciplinary “Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde” project, which is comprised of universities, research institutes, clinics, and industrial partners, aims at identifying novel targets for diagnostics, patient risk assessment, and therapy of infectious disease caused by the opportunistic fungal pathogen Candida albicans. Genedata Phylosopher will be the central data management infrastructure integrating and interpreting the high-throughput experimental data generated within the consortium, focusing on next-generation sequencing, microarray, proteome, and metabolite data.

“We decided to partner with Genedata because they offered a product-based solution for centralized data management,” explained Prof. U. Bilitewski, Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde project coordinator at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (Braunschweig, Germany). “Using Phylosopher we are able to perform -omics data and next-generation sequencing data integration and analysis in one system. This greatly helps us understand infection mechanisms of Candida.”

Candida albicans is the single most prevalent fungal pathogen causing up to 70% of all fungal hospital-acquired infections and is a major problem in intensive care units. While anti-mycotics are often given prophylactically to combat this problem, this leads to the selection of resistant strains requiring new therapeutic strategies. In the commensal state C. albicans asymptomatically colonize the host with the host protected from infection. Knowledge of molecular mechanisms, which prevent the pathogenicity of C. albicans, is still in its infancy. The “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” project aims at identifying biomarkers that could guide a therapeutic intervention.

“The Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde project is a network of excellent scientific institutions, and Genedata is proud to be part of this consortium,” said Dr. Othmar Pfannes, CEO of Genedata. “Having this interdisciplinary consortium chose Genedata Phylosopher as their central data management and analysis infrastructure demonstrates Genedata’s continued leadership in delivering tailored solutions based on a strong product portfolio and professional services for biomarker discovery for novel diagnostic and therapeutic approaches.”

About MedSys Initiative and Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde Project

The “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” project is granted within the German Medical Systems Biology program (www.fz-juelich.de/ptj/medsys). The project aims at generating a systems understanding of the key mechanisms leading to the protection of the host, i.e. preventing the pathogenic state of Candida albicans. The multidisciplinary consortium of universities, research institutes, clinics, and enterprises will focus on the study of host-pathogen interactions by assessing, from a Systems Biology perspective, both the response of the host to Candida albicans, and of this opportunistic pathogen to the host under commensal and pathogenic conditions.

About Genedata

Genedata transforms data into intelligence with a portfolio of advanced software solutions for drug discovery and life science research, which spans target, lead and biomarker discovery. Used by a majority of the world’s top 50 pharmaceutical companies and leading research organizations, Genedata Phylosopher®, Genedata Screener®, Genedata Expressionist®, and Genedata Analyst™ make research data accessible and understandable, enabling scientific discovery that fights disease and improves health worldwide. Founded in 1997, Genedata is privately held, with offices in Switzerland, Germany, Japan and the US. www.genedata.com