German University Joins GeneGo's Metaminer Cardiac Project
The St. Joseph-based biological research software developer GeneGo Inc. announced Tuesday that Salah Mohamed in Department of Cardio and Thoracic Vascular Surgery at Germany's University of Luebeck and his team will be part of the Metaminer Cardiac Partnership.
Mohamed's research has been published in six American scientific journals. Performed for the American Heart Association, his work focuses on biomarker discovery.
Mohamed and colleagues theorized that the cause of acute aortic dissection lay in the interaction of other proteins with the protein MS FBN1. That protein is encoded by a mutated gene linked to Marfan syndrome. Researchers found 88 genes in the tissue of all 19 acute aortic dissection patients who had gene expression -- the process that converts a gene's encoded information into a protein -- significantly different from the same genes in the Marfan patients and the control group. Further investigation revealed that the MS FBN1 protein interacted directly with the proteins of four of the 88 genes -- fibulin 1 (FBLN1), fibulin 2 (FBLN2), Decorin (DCN) and microfibrillar associated protein 5 (MFAPS5).
"Interestingly, one of these four proteins is considered as a candidate in the development of Marfan syndrome," Mohamed said. "The study was also aimed at the future development of a clinical test for monitoring patients with a high risk of acute aortic dissection. Most acute aortic dissection patients do not have a known connective tissue disorder. The identification of the four genes could be a starting point to develop a diagnostic tool, and we plan to utilize GeneGo's tools to further this study."
Said Julie Bryant, vice president of business development at GeneGo: "Dr. Mohamed and his group are going to bring a lot of domain knowledge to the MetaMiner Cardiac Project which is essential to its success. Cardiac disease reconstruction pathway maps are unique to GeneGo and we have been pioneers in this field. We are also looking for more Pharmaceutical members with domain expertise."
GeneGo develops systems biology technology such as compound based pathway analysis, cheminformatics and bioinformatics software for life science research. The original computational MetaDiscovery platform allows an integration and expert analysis of different kinds of experimental data and relevant bioactive chemistry within the framework of curated biological pathways and networks. GeneGo's flagship product, MetaCore 6.3, assists pharmaceutical scientists in the areas of target selection and validation, data mining in biology, identification of biomarkers for disease states and toxicology. The second product, MetaDrug 6.3, is designed for prediction of human metabolism, toxicity and biological effects for novel small molecules compounds.
More at www.genego.com.
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