The Institute of Experimental Medicine, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic is to study the effects of air pollution on asthma bronchiale in young children. The institution will examine the study data and apply Genedata Expressionist to process and analyse transcriptomics data in conjunction with genetic polymorphism and clinical data.
'We will take advantage of Genedata's expertise and their powerful software to process and analyse large amounts of toxicogenomics data, standardise the quality assessment process of the primary data and deliver reliable and robust data analysis results,' explained Radim J Sram, head of the Laboratory of Genetic Ecotoxicology at the Institute of Experimental Medicine, Academy of Sciences (Prague). 'We chose Genedata after our previous successful collaboration studying genome-wide differential gene expression in children exposed to air pollution. Using Expressionist, researchers demonstrated how transcriptomic analysis can be effectively used as a promising biomarker detection method for the effect of environmental carcinogens.'
The asthma bronchiale project focuses on investigating and understanding the effects of air pollution on gene expression and the individual genetic susceptibility to the effects of toxic air pollutants in selected children cohorts from various regions of the Czech Republic. The diagnosis of asthma bronchiale in children has increased from 10 per cent in 2001 to 30 per cent in 2007 in the Ostrava-Bartovice region. This alarming trend is now being investigated looking at dust particles containing carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (c-PAHs) as these particles are thought to contribute to the increase of asthma bronchitis. Inherited genetic factors are also being studied to provide further information to improve the mechanistic understanding of the causes of the disease.
'We are excited about the asthma bronchiale project and to contribute to uncovering the mechanism of action of the disease in children,' noted Dr Othmar Pfannes, CEO of Genedata. 'This collaboration further demonstrates Genedata's commitment to biomarker research and providing statistical data analysis across multiple research groups and locations.'The Institute of Experimental Medicine Academy of Sciences in the Czech Republic is to study the effects of air pollution on asthma bronchiale in young children, with the help of Genedata Expressionist.