GENE NETWORK SCIENCES ANNOUNCES ONCOLOGY DRUG DEVELOPMENT CONTRACT WITH JOHNSON & JOHNSON PHARMACEUTICAL RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT
| Contact: |  |
Debbie Pfeifer Gene Network Sciences (206) 282-5098 debbie@gnsbiotech.com |
ITHACA, NY - March 07, 2005 - Gene Network Sciences (GNS) today announced that it has signed a drug development contract with Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research & Development, a Division of Janssen Pharmaceutica N.V. Under the agreement, J&JPRD will use proprietary pathway inference technology and data-driven computer models from GNS to help determine the pathways associated with the mechanism of action, biomarkers and tumor specificity of a pre-clinical oncology compound. Financial terms were not disclosed.
“Our modeling platform represents years of research and scientific validation,” said Colin Hill, CEO of GNS. “We now look forward to proving its commercial relevance by positively impacting drug development efforts.”
Existing GNS models are customized and enhanced for customers with their compound-specific experimental data. The models become more robust as GNS uses its proprietary network inference techniques to explore millions of ‘what if’ hypotheses about the functions of genes and proteins within pathways affected by a compound and infer probable network architectures. The results are incorporated into mechanistic simulations of cell function and human biology that connect molecular-level interactions to disease phenotypes. The models become increasingly accurate during this iterative process, with inference predicting new genes, proteins and interactions to be included in the simulations, while the simulations test hypotheses and help determine additional experiments.
About Gene Network Sciences
Founded in August 2000, Gene Network Sciences (www.gnsbiotech.com) is a privately held biotech company headquartered in Ithaca, New York. GNS integrates pre-clinical and clinical data into accurate and robust computer simulations of human cancer cells and the heart. GNS applies these data-driven computer models in drug development alliances with pharmaceutical companies to determine the mechanism of action of new drugs and the associated biomarkers of drug efficacy and toxicity. GNS technology increases clinical trial success rates and helps to bring better drugs to market faster.