NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Ariadne said today it is collaborating with European consortium BIO-NMD on a project to identify biomarkers for Duchenne and Becker muscular dystrophies and collagen VI myopathies.
Ariadne will provide bioinformatics tools for identifying functional pathways, potential targets, and data outflow integration, the company said in a statement. Its software suit, Pathway Studio, will be the core product used for integrating data and information flow.
The company, headquartered in Rockville, Md., also will build mechanistic models and pathways for neuromuscular diseases and interpret data generated by BIO-NMD researchers "in the context of NMD knowledgebase and networks," Ariadne said.
Terms of the collaboration were not disclosed.
BIO-NMD is a three-year, research project funded by the European Union to identify non-invasive biomarkers for the Duchenne and Becker types of muscular dystrophies, which affect primarily skeletal muscles, and collagen VI myopathies. The EU is providing €5.5 million ($6.9 million)in funding with an additional €2 million coming from members of BIO-NMD.
Comprised of 12 academic institutions and members, the consortium will use various –omics technologies to find biomarkers for ongoing and future clinical trials, Ariadne said.