laboratory informatics
including antibody screening, protein engineering and lead optimisation, through to cell line development and biologics production. ‘Te platform can effectively keep a complete
track of each molecule and its accompanying data as it progresses through R&D. For the characterisation of biomolecules, Genedata Expressionist provides a complete, vendor neutral and fully automated solution for data processing, analysis, management and reporting of mass spectrometry studies throughout the biotherapeutics R&D life cycle, from high throughput plate-based screening, through to the quality control of final products.’ Omics-based patient profiling is another
major growth area for the pharmaceutical sector, which is supported by the Genedata Profiler platform for managing patient studies, including the processing and analysis of NGS data. ‘Our soſtware is being used increasingly by companies that are undertaking patient stratification studies for clinical trials. Critically, the platform complies with all regulatory standards for patient data security, including permissions for handling and transferring that data.’ Genedata Selector is a genome knowledge-
Genedata software packages are offered through subscription licensing agreements
instruments and technologies. ‘Standardisation and harmonisation of processes and workflows can be a real stumbling block for organisations that have research teams at multiple sites who don’t all work to identical protocols, and this can make it hard to reproduce results. Our soſtware enables the standardisation and automation of complex data handling and data analysis across an organisation.’
Managing terabytes of data Scalability is also critical, Pfannes suggests. ‘One of the major strengths of our platforms is the ability to manage the terabytes of information generated through workflowsmay process thousands of samples using instruments generating large datasets per sample, per experiment. ‘Without soſtware able to manage that
volume and depth of data, experiments at that scale become meaningless, and you don’t get maximum return on investment in expensive instrumentation. Our platforms are vendor- independent, and we are continually working to ensure that our soſtware will support a broad scope of instrumentation. Genedata instigated a ready-to-run program for its Genedata Screener platform a couple of years ago, through which we work with specific vendors to make sure that their
www.scientific-computing.com l OMICS-BASED
PATIENT PROFILING IS ANOTHER MAJOR GROWTH AREA FOR THE SECTOR
technologies are supported by our platforms, and so provide instrument-specific, out-of-the-box solutions for complex technologies such as high content screening.’ Plate-based screening is one area where a
broad range of technologies has emerged for lead identification, optimisation and characterisation, Pfannes comments. ‘Te Genedata Screener platform can manage a wide range of high volume and complex data screening technologies, spanning ultra high throughput, and high content processes that generate vast amounts of data, to ion channel screens, and DMPK processes that may evaluate just a few samples.’
Hot topics Biologics R&D is another hot topic, he adds. ‘So far we have done very little marketing for the Genedata Biologics solution, which integrates with laboratory instrumentation to support end-to-end biologics research and development,
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management platform that also supports omics- based approaches, including NGS, to optimise strain and cell line development for R&D in sectors spanning agriculture, biophama, industrial biotech, biofuels and the food and beverage industry. ‘Tis is becoming a key product for a number of industries,’ Pfannes states.
Evolving R&D Genedata’s future direction is very much linked to how the R&D sector evolves, Pfannes admits. ‘Some three quarters of our 200 personnel globally are PhD-level scientists, and this means that our soſtware development is founded on an in depth knowledge of the science that underpins these processes, not just from an IT perspective. ‘We try to understand what the end user
will need in terms of how data are managed, presented and accessed from a user perspective, as well as the requirements of the platform from a process support perspective. All our platforms can also be integrated through just one interface, and allow users in different departments or laboratories to look at the same datasets at the same time, but from different standpoints.’ With no venture capital funding, Genedata’s
growth has been built purely on its sales revenues, and the firm has kept sales and marketing activities to a minimum. ‘Most of our business is by word of mouth. We believe that our platforms cover more or less all the key technologies for the major pharma R&D sector, and we are continually working to support new instrumentation and processes as they are developed,’ Pfannes concludes.l
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