Genedata has been selected to participate in an ERA-Net-funded applied pathogenomics project, which is using systems biology to identify the role of small non-coding RNA (sncRNA) in infectious diseases. The sncRNAomics European Research Consortium is identifying novel targets for diagnostics and therapy of five major high-risk gram-positive human microbial pathogens. The Genedata Phylosopher biological data management solution was chosen as the central management and infrastructure platform for sharing and interpreting the experimental data, in particular the next-generation sequencing and tiling array data generated within the consortium.
'We chose to partner with Genedata because they have a successful track record in transcriptome-based biomarker identification and also because they have the strongest product portfolio for centralised data management for target validation,' explained Dr Torsten Hain of the University of Giessen (Germany) and sncRNAomics Project Coordinator. 'In health care, and especially in a clinical environment, microbial resistance increases exponentially. Antibiotics have become a blunt sword and we need new approaches in diagnostics and therapy,' continued Dr Hain. 'Small non-coding RNAs in bacteria are an emerging class of new gene expression regulators, but their role in colonisation and pathogenicity is largely unknown. Within this interdisciplinary project we are applying for the first time a systems biology approach on major human pathogens to elucidate the role of sncRNAs, and to identify and validate new sncRNA-based diagnostic biomarkers and drug targets.'
Genedata Phylosopher will integrate all experimental data from the pathogens and the host organisms. Using a genome-wide scale and regulatory network approach, the consortium will adapt high-throughput technologies such as transcriptomics by tiling arrays as well as next-generation sequencing technologies to identify novel sncRNAs and to investigate their role in regulation. Genedata Phylosopher supports the reconstruction of disease pathways, in particular the refinement of functional assignment of genes, transcripts, proteins, regulatory motifs, RNAs and their molecular interactions, to regulatory networks during host-pathogen interactions.