Orion Bionetworks: Developing Predictive Models to Power the Search for Cures

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Today we announce the launch of Orion Bionetworks, a multi-institution cooperative non-profit alliance that is unlocking the power of shared data and predictive modeling to help transform our understanding of diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS) and accelerate the search for cures. Alliance partners include leading organizations in patient care, computational modeling, translational research, and patient advocacy: Accelerated Cure Project for Multiple Sclerosis, the Institute for Neurosciences at Brigham and Womens Hospital, GNS Healthcare, MetaCell, and PatientsLikeMe. Janssen Research & Development, LLC, a New Jersey-based pharmaceutical company, has provided a $5.4 million scientific sponsorship as part of its Healthy Minds program for the initial phase of this effort.

Orion Bionetworks has been established as a program of the Marin Community Foundation. Its President & CEO, Thomas Peters, Ph.D., hailed the formation of the new alliance. We are enormously proud to welcome Orion Bionetworks within the Foundation, said Peters. We are confident that this blend of expertise and creativity will lead to significant scientific success.

Key supporting partners include One Mind for Research, Morrison & Foerster, Recombinant Data, and Weber Shandwick.

A Unique Cooperative Alliance

Through Orion Bionetworks, alliance partners contribute to a communal body of knowledge in the pursuit of better disease understanding, prevention and treatment, and gain access to state-of-the-art analytical tools, technologies and inter-disciplinary expertise.

Initially, Orion Bionetworks will focus on integrating clinical, biomarker and imaging data with rich real-world patient data from existing, independent databases of over 7,000 people with MS into a causal computational disease model.

PatientsLikeMe Co-Founder and Chairman Jamie Heywood said, This silo-breaking initiative allows data from disparate sources, including our patient network of thousands of individuals who monitor their health and share their MS symptom and treatment information, to be analyzed in a way that will transform future discoveries andmaximize the benefit for all.

Computational Modeling

Computational modeling, or biosimulation, is an emerging research platform that has the potential to transform our understanding of human biology and predict which individual or environmental factors influence the development and progression of disease. Application of sophisticated modeling and simulation technologies for drug discovery and development could help the healthcare industry overcome the current economic and product pipeline challenges it faces in a number of therapeutic areas including neuroscience.

Read the original:
Orion Bionetworks: Developing Predictive Models to Power the Search for Cures