GNS Healthcare said this week that it will help develop a predictive model for multiple sclerosis and other diseases under the umbrella of Orion Bionetworks, a newly minted non-profit alliance that aims to use computational modeling to study disease mechanisms in order to select and develop more effective treatments.
The company said that it will use clinical, biomarker, and imaging data from 7,000 patients provided by members of the alliance to build a computational model for multiple sclerosis that could provide new information about the mechanisms of disease and also help physicians select better treatments for their patients.
Besides GNS Healthcare, other participants in the multiple sclerosis project include Accelerated Cure Project for Multiple Sclerosis, the Institute for Neurosciences at Brigham and Women's Hospital, MetaCell, and PatientsLikeMe.
The alliance is initially focusing on models for MS,but members also plan to study other diseases.