NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – GeneGo said today it will collaborate with The Netherlands Toxicogenomics Center on a project aimed at developing predictive screens that could evaluate the safety of chemicals for humans and could be used as replacements or refinements to some animal studies.
The NTC will use GeneGo’s MetaCore and MetaDrug data analysis software to manage and interpret data from proteomic, metabolomics, chemical, and gene expression research and to identify pathway functions that may contribute to adverse events caused by the introduction of foreign chemicals.
The company also will work with the NTC’s bioinformatics group to develop predictive models that could help identify adverse effects in animals from short-term in vivo experiments or from in vitro experiments in which cells are used instead of animals.
The company said the collaboration is part of a five year, multi-party project being funded with €25 million ($36.4 million).
Richard Brennan, director of toxicology at GeneGo, said the joint project will help the company “further validate and develop” its predictive systems toxicology capabilities.