Information and updates on the on the Sage Commons Congress are now available on the Congress web site sagecongress.org. There is a news and discussion forum in addition to details on the program, venue and travel awards. You can also sign up for RSS, twitter and email news feeds on Sage Commons-related topics.
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Sage Bionetworks has been selected by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Integrative Cancer Biology Program (ICBP) to establish a new interdisciplinary research and training center. The grant entitled “Integrating Cancer Datasets for Predictive Model Development and Training” will provide a baseline of $6.7m to support the Center’s operation and the training of four postdoctoral researchers each year. -full press release - We are thrilled to receive the strong support from NCI and to join the other Centers for Cancer Systems Biology (CCSB),” said Stephen Friend, Sage Bionetworks President. “We are particularly pleased that they share our view on the critical importance of training.” Dr. Dan Gallahan, the Director of the NCI Integrative Cancer Biology Program said, “Sage Bionetworks’ training and research program as well as the developing Sage Commons platform bring a new dimension and I am excited to have their participation in the NCI ICBP centers program.” “This prestigious grant is a wonderful endorsement for our young organization and validates our vision to establish a contributor-based integrative genomics and network biology resource to accelerate drug development,” Dr. Friend added. “Advanced predictive models of cancer, built through a network analysis of complex molecular and clinical datasets, are increasingly poised to inform drug development and clinical care decisions.” “Sage was established based on three themes; biomedical research, integrative genomics platform building and training. These three tenets establish a foundation for a Commons that will ultimately enable the sharing of large comprehensive datasets and models among scientists,” said Dr. Jonathan Derry, Sage’s Research Director and the Center’s administrative leader. “This new NCI Center represents the first component of our training mission.” “Interdisciplinary bridges are essential for the development and use of genomic technologies. For this reason we have chosen to train paired mathematicians/physicists and biologist/clinicians so that they can cross-fertilize each other’s thinking.” Dr. Friend added. “Such interactions often form the spark of innovation.” Prof. Bert Vogelstein, Director of the Ludwig Center for Cancer Genetics & Therapeutics at Johns Hopkins University, commented, “We are delighted to be a part of this novel collaborative center and to provide our comprehensive cancer analysis data as part of the foundation for the Commons platform.” He added, “High throughput integrative genomics will strengthen our understanding of cancer and our ability to predict clinical outcomes based on molecular data.” Sage Bionetworks will collaborate with the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, The Johns Hopkins University, The Dana Farber Cancer Institute, The University of Hong Kong and the Netherlands Cancer Institute as well as with the other ICBP Centers. The research projects will initially focus on breast, colon, liver and pancreatic cancer. The resultant computational models will be validated in the laboratory to test their accuracy as well as to help refine and improve the models. About the ICBP Program: The National Cancer Institute (NCI) Integrative Cancer Biology Program (ICBP) supports eleven Centers for Cancer Systems Biology distributed across the US. Begun in 2004, the current participants include Sloan-Kettering, MIT, Broad Institute, Caritas St. Elizabeth, Methodist Hospital, Georgetown, Ohio State, Vanderbilt, Stanford and Lawrence Berkeley. The Centers are highly interactive and collaborate with other NCI programs and grantees. ICBP is an interdisciplinary program bringing together talented researchers from experimental biology, medicine, math, physics, information technology, imaging and computer science. Viewing cancer as a complex biological system, ICBP’s central theme is the development of computational models related to cancer prevention diagnosis and therapeutics. A key feature of the program is the focus on building predictive models of cancer rather than just analyzing data. There is a further pragmatic emphasis on testing the models to validate the usefulness in research, drug development and health care. For more information go to: www.icbp.nci.nih.gov Sage Bionetworks has started a test project to provide open access to selected datasets and network models to researchers interested in applying their analytical methods to a known dataset. The resources are freely available to any interested party through the Sage Repository Download Page. Further information is available on the Sage web site. Users only need provide their name, organizational affiliation and a valid email address. Acknowledgement of the Sage Repository is requested in all resulting publications and presentations. The first dataset being offered is from a cross of ApoE null C57BL/6J and C3H/HeJ mice that have been used to construct informative cardiovascular and metabolic disease models. The repository packages include a readme file with descriptions and references and a compressed folder with datasets and analyses. Researchers should send questions, comments and suggestions to repdata@sagebase.org. More datasets will be added to initially limited catalog during 2010. Sage Bionetworks announced today a new research partnership with Pfizer, Inc. to build, analyze and exploit advanced network models of cancer. Pfizer will provide research funding to Sage to analyze large, globally-coherent datasets from Pfizer, Sage and the public domain. Through innovative network biology analysis Sage will use the genetic, molecular and clinical information to create predictive computational disease models. These models will help identify therapeutic targets for oncology drug development as well as aid in evaluating the efficacy and safety of drug development candidates. “Our collaboration with Pfizer will help develop more innovative and more effective disease models and in turn help define specific patient sub-populations most likely to respond to new therapies,” said Dr. Stephen Friend, President of Sage Bionetworks. “We continue to implement our partnering strategy as part of our larger mission to build a Commons where users can exploit the full potential of network analysis across multiple complex datasets”, Dr. Friend added, “Data and models from the collaboration will become available in the Sage repository one year following the completion of the project expanding the datasets publicly available.” Sage Bionetworks has assembled key capabilities and resources to continue its success in network biology through the support of partners such as Quintiles, The CHDI Foundation and the Canary Fund. Sage Bionetworks is located on the campus of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and works with a number of academic and commercial partners on integrative genomics projects and the creation of an accessible platform to share and data and improve analytical tools. Sage will continue to expand its Seattle team as a result of these agreements. In her year end reflection on the key trends and events in drug development Bethan Hughes cites Sage Bionetworks as an important new trend in R&D business Models. As part of a series from technology leaders around the country, Xconomy has published Stephen Friend’s post on his vision of innovation and disruption in biotechnology. The article discusses his candidates for currently cutting edge science that may be relegated to museum displays in five to ten years. Xconomy, an innovative news blog covering the exponential economy has cited an article on one of Sage’s co-founders as one of its seven biotechnology picks of 2009. -more- The Sage Presentations schedule has been updated through June 2010. The page lists conferences where Sage Bionetworks staff will be presenting research papers and talking about the Sage Commons initiative. Many of the past presentations are also available for downloading. October 6, 2009 – Sage Bionetworks, a not-for-profit organization established to develop an open-access genomic platform for use in drug discovery, announced a major founding donation today from Quintiles, the only fully integrated biopharmaceutical services company offering clinical, commercial, consulting and capital solutions worldwide. |
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Sage Bionetworks | 1100 Fairview Avenue North | Seattle WA 98109 |
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