J&J and GNS sign cancer drug development deal

Under the agreement, Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical R&D (J&JPRD) will use proprietary pathway inference technology and data-driven computer models from Gene Network Sciences (GNS) to help determine the pathways associated with the mechanism of action, biomarkers and tumor specificity of a preclinical oncology compound.

Existing GNS models are customized and enhanced for customers using compound-specific experimental data. The models become more robust as GNS inference techniques explore millions of ‘what if’ hypotheses about the functions of genes and proteins within pathways affected by a compound.

The results are incorporated into simulations of cell function and human biology that connect molecular-level interactions to disease phenotypes. The models become increasingly accurate during this iterative process, with inference predicting new genes, proteins and interactions to be included in the simulations, while the simulations test hypotheses and help determine additional experiments.