A project aiming to identify novel targets for diagnostics, patient risk assessment, and therapy of infectious disease caused by the fungal pathogen Candida albicans, has implemented Genedata Phylosopher as its central data management infrastructure. The multidisciplinary 'Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde' project, funded by the German Medical Systems Biology (MedSys) initiative, is using Phylosopher to integrate and interpret the high-throughput experimental data generated within the consortium of universities, research institutes, clinics, and industrial partners involved in the project.
'We decided to partner with Genedata because they offered a product-based solution for centralised data management,' explained Professor U. Bilitewski, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde project coordinator at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (Braunschweig, Germany). 'Using Phylosopher we are able to perform -omics data and next-generation sequencing data integration and analysis in one system. This greatly helps us understand infection mechanisms of Candida.'
Candida albicans is the single most prevalent fungal pathogen causing up to 70 per cent of all fungal hospital-acquired infections and is a major problem in intensive care units. While anti-mycotics are often given prophylactically to combat this problem, this leads to the selection of resistant strains requiring new therapeutic strategies. The project aims at identifying biomarkers that could guide a therapeutic intervention.
