St. Joseph company gets Small Business Innovation Research grant
A St. Joseph company that specializes in extracting patterns from data for scientists has been awarded a Small Business Innovation Research Grant through the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
GeneGo, Inc., will use the funds to develop an integrated systems biology platform for research into the causes and treatment of tobacco dependence, nicotine addiction, smoking cessation and tobacco and nicotine withdrawal.
“One in five adults in the U.S. smokes according to the CDC, and it is estimated that smoking kills 1,000 Americans per day,” says Richard Brennan, Director of Toxicology at GeneGo and principle investigator on the grant.
The size of the grant was not disclosed. The funds will be used to develop a database and systems biology tool-set that will help with the study of pathways involved in nicotine addiction and withdrawal. Mutations in human genes and the controlling regions that affect addiction and withdrawal also will be part of the database as will therapeutic strategies and biomarkers for the treatment of nicotine addiction.
The project will gather existing knowledge and data to reconstruct these pathways and make them accessible to researchers and clinicians working in a variety of areas.
The company has had success with similar projects that are helping create treatments for cystic fiborsis and other diseases.
“The NIDA has recognized the strength of GeneGo’s scientific expertise and our capabilities in providing new and critical systems biology tools for disease research,” says Julie Bryant, GeneGo’s vice president of business development.
GeneGo employs more than 90 scientists and software developers at its corporate headquarters in St. Joseph. It also has offices in San Diego and in Moscow, Russia. GeneGo is a private company owned by the management team. Its sales revenues and technology grants fund ongoing research and product development for bioinformatics applications within systems biology.
Writer: Kathy Jennings
Source: Julie Bryant, GeneGo
Author
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