GENE NETWORK SCIENCES AWARDED SBIR GRANT FOR CARDIAC MODELING AND IN SILICO SAFETY TESTING
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Debbie Pfeifer Gene Network Sciences (206) 282-5098 debbie@gnsbiotech.com |
ITHACA, NY - July 26, 2005 - Gene Network Sciences (GNS) today announced that the company has won a Phase One Small Business Innovation Research Grant (SBIR) from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health. The six-month, $137,800 grant will be used to further the company’s cardiac modeling efforts, specifically in the areas of improving protocols for safety testing and providing a software tool for streamlined data integration in the cardiac electrical activity simulation.
“At present, there is no available experimental model for elucidating the effect that a drug-induced change in ion channel electrical properties may have on cardiac wave propagation,” said Dr. Jeffrey Fox, vice president of cardiovascular research at GNS. “With this grant, GNS will directly address these risk assessment issues. We will also establish a data collection protocol and software tool that that will greatly improve the efficiency of expanding the simulation to include additional ionic currents.”
The GNS approach combines experimental and computational methods. As part of the grant, the company will develop a standardized, in vitro IKr assay. GNS chose to begin with this important channel because an estimated 40% of early compounds have IKr activity. “Another major goal will be to create a tighter, more streamlined link between experimental data and computer models of cardiac cells via the development of a database and software tool for testing, processing and integrating assays into the larger heart simulation,” said Dr. Greg Buzzard, the company’s director of cardiovascular technology and the principal investigator of the grant.
“Using computer models, Gene Network Sciences accelerates drug discovery and development. This technology also has the potential to advance the field of personalized medicine,” said House Science Committee Chairman Sherwood Boehlert, who represents New York’s 24th District. “I congratulate GNS on its latest win and commend the company as it continues to create high-paying technology jobs in central New York.”
This grant complements two previous SBIR grants that GNS received from the NIH this year. The other two grants are being used to develop the simulation platform for creating data-driven computer models of cardiac electrophysiology and to extend GNS technology to include models of key cardiac signaling networks. In addition, in February 2004, a team from GNS, Cornell and UCSD won a $2 million, four-year Bioengineering Research Grant to characterize ion channels via a computer model of the canine ventricle.
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.