NEW YORK – The Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (MMRF) is teaming with bioinformatics firm GNS Healthcare to analyze data from the MMRF CoMMpass study in search of new insights on disease progression and therapeutic response. The parties announced a five-year partnership Thursday.
GNS Healthcare, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based maker of a causal machine-learning platform for precision medicine, will apply artificial intelligence and simulation technology to longitudinal multimodal data from the CoMMpass genomics dataset. The partners will be looking to identify subtypes of aggressive multiple myeloma disease progression, as well as indicators of patient response to treatments, including immunotherapies like CAR-T cell therapy, they said.
Launched in 2011, the Relating Clinical Outcomes in Multiple Myeloma to Personal Assessment of Genetic Profile trial, commonly known as CoMMpass, is following more than 1,100 multiple myeloma patients and collecting clinical and genomic data prior to treatment as well as at key time points such as when patients relapse.
"Data by itself doesn't generate the insights needed to change patient outcomes," MMRF President and CEO Paul Giusti said in a statement. "This collaboration with GNS will maximize the insights we can extract from CoMMpass data to address questions most critical to patients and the multiple myeloma community."
"As we embark on building the next generation of in silico patient computer models to unravel the drivers of multiple myeloma, [the MMRF's] support and collaboration helps us not only to continue uncovering the underlying drivers of the disease but also better simulate which treatments will lead to better outcomes for which patients – getting at the crux of precision medicine in practice," added Colin Hill, CEO and cofounder of GNS Healthcare.