SEATTLE–Sage Bionetworks has announced today a new research partnership with Pfizer, Inc. to build, analyze and exploit advanced network models of cancer. Pfizer will provide research funding to Sage to analyze large, globally coherent datasets from Pfizer, Sage and the public domain. Through innovative network biology analysis Sage will use the genetic, molecular and clinical information to create predictive computational disease models. These models will help identify therapeutic targets for oncology drug development as well as aid in evaluating the efficacy and safety of drug development candidates.

“We continue to implement our partnering strategy as part of our larger mission to build a Commons where users can exploit the full potential of network analysis across multiple complex datasets”

“Our collaboration with Pfizer will help develop more innovative and more effective disease models and in turn help define specific patient sub-populations most likely to respond to new therapies,” said Dr. Stephen Friend, President of Sage Bionetworks.

“We continue to implement our partnering strategy as part of our larger mission to build a Commons where users can exploit the full potential of network analysis across multiple complex datasets,” Dr. Friend added. “Data and models from the collaboration will become available in the Sage repository one year following the completion of the project expanding the datasets publicly available.”

Sage Bionetworks has assembled key capabilities and resources to continue its success in network biology through the support of partners such as Quintiles, The CHDI Foundation and the Canary Fund. Sage Bionetworks is located on the campus of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and works with a number of academic and commercial partners on integrative genomics projects and the creation of an accessible platform to share and data and improve analytical tools. Sage will continue to expand its Seattle team as a result of these agreements.

About Sage Bionetworks

Sage Bionetworks is a new, nonprofit medical research organization to revolutionize how researchers approach the complexity of human biological information and the treatment of disease. Sage works with academic and commercial partners on comprehensive molecular and clinical datasets in order to create validated disease models that improve the speed and efficiency of therapeutic drug development. Sage’s vision is to create an open-access, integrative bionetwork evolved by contributor scientists working to eliminate human disease. For more information visit: www.sagebase.org.