Integromics, a provider of IT solutions for life sciences in the field of genomics and proteomics, has formed a partnership with the Celgene Institute for Translational Research Europe (CITRE) and the Centre of Studies and Technical Research (CEIT), for the execution of Sanscript, a project that aims at the development of new data analysis methods applied in clinical genomics studies.
Based on the strength of its R&D work, the new partnership has been awarded a two million-euro grant from the Spanish government for the development of algorithms and statistical tools to identify alternative splicing events significantly related with disease associated biomarkers or therapeutic targets using RNA sequencing.
Current algorithms, due to their intrinsic characteristics, have major limitations in characterising gene alterations, which are frequently related to drug resistance and other phenotypes. Therefore, it is essential to adapt the present methods developed for the new massive sequencing technologies to extract all their potential for development of diagnostic and prognostic tests, and drug discovery in the clinical and pharmaceutical environment.
The Sanscript collaboration, coordinated by Integromics, has been designed to address these issues through the synergy between the engineers at CEIT, scientists at CITRE and the bioinformaticians from Integromics, which will undoubtedly accelerate the development of solutions for personalised medicine. The new solutions will be validated for personalised drug-development processes where gene expression is essential to understand the differing responses to treatment.