Genaissance Pharmaceuticals joins MSI's Functional Genomics database
Under the terms of the agreement, Genaissance will have access to MSI's AtlasBase, a collection of available gene sequences with enhanced functional annotations. The consortium was launched to deliver new automated technology for high-throughput structural proteomics, protein function assignment and sequence annotation.
"Personalized medicine is a new and exciting field with the potential to have an enormous impact on pharmaceutical development and on human health," said Richard Judson, Senior Vice President of Informatics at Genaissance. "Based upon an initial validation project, we are confident that joining MSI's Functional Genomics Consortium will make us better equipped to analyze the functional implications of gene variability. This knowledge will add another dimension to our ability to predict individual drug responses based on each person's DNA."
Genaissance Pharmaceuticals applies population genomics, informatics and clinical research to the development of personalized medicines. The company discovers genomic markers that are predictive of drug response based on each patients DNA and markets its technology to the healthcare industry as a solution for improving drug development, marketing and prescribing.
"We are excited to be working closely with Genaissance to expand the scope of the consortium to include the challenges of pharmacogenetics, characterization of gene product variants, and the understanding of the functional significance of SNPs and haplotypes," said Scott Kahn, Senior Vice President of Life Sciences at MSI. "As we enter the next competitive theatre in the post-genomic era, the higher resolution of information derived from knowledge of predicted protein structure will give Genaissance a competitive advantage in their pursuit of personalized medicines."