GENEVA, Switzerland – After close collaboration and thorough testing for over a year, SmileMS small molecule identification software is now relied upon for emergency clinical toxicology screening at Geneva University Hospitals (HUG – Hôpitaux Universitaires de Genève).

Medical doctors treating patients with toxicological symptoms need fast and reliable identification of the causing toxic agent. Existing screening methods in clinical routine laboratories often rely on spectral comparisons of LC-UV-DAD data in addition to classical immuno-assays and chemical methods. Liquid Chromatography Tandem Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS-MS) combined with spectral library searching has now proven itself to be a quick and powerful diagnostic technique.

Professor Denis Hochstrasser, Head of the Department of Genetic and Laboratory Medicine at HUG, commented, “there was a strong need for a more robust approach to small molecule identification at toxic and therapeutic levels and with the algorithm developed by GeneBio we have now successfully implemented an efficient solution for routine analysis using LC-MS-MS. Thanks to SmileMS, medical doctors can provide patients with diagnosis or therapy quickly and with high confidence.”

About toxicological screening at HUG

The team developed a multi-target drugs screening method in biological matrices based on LC-MS-MS using the AB SCIEX QTRAP 3200 and Bruker amaZon X instruments. Drug identification is carried out by a library search approach using SmileMS developed by GeneBio. It is based on searching product ion scan spectra against the Weinmann library and a home-made Bruker HCT/amaZon library.

Dr. Marc Fathi of the Toxicology Laboratory at HUG explained, “the great advantage over vendor-specific solutions is that you can use one piece of software for data interpretation which can handle experimental spectra from different instruments and libraries from different sources including our own library, as well as generate a report in a single format.”

The immediate benefits of the application of SmileMS in the identification of drugs and toxins in acute clinical toxicology are:

· Powerful automated identification with less false positives

· Screening positive and negative ions in a single run

· Intuitive interface appropriate to routine analysis

· One software for searching multiple spectral libraries and for use with the main MS instruments

· Unambiguous compound identification within 20 minutes at therapeutic levels

The SmileMS solution

SmileMS version 1.0 was made available to the public by GeneBio on July 20, 2010. Developed in collaboration with SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics and Professor Denis Hochstrasser’s team, SmileMS targets a growing need for efficient and automatable processes using LC-MS techniques for routine daily compound analysis.

Nasri Nahas, the CEO of GeneBio announced, “We developed this tool by capitalizing on our company’s experience in the field of bioinformatics and in close partnership with the team at HUG. It is with great pride that we can confirm that SmileMS is relied upon in a hospital and emergency room context.”

The future looks bright for GeneBio whose reputation continues to grow. “We are very excited about the potential for SmileMS and look forward to announcing further successful projects to highlight the versatility of this new platform,” added Nasri Nahas.

More information about SmileMS: www.genebio.com/products/smilems

Geneva Bioinformatics (GeneBio) SA is a leading bioinformatics company providing the life sciences community with world-class software that bridges the gap between information gathering and knowledge generation.

www.genebio.com