CAMBRIDGE, Mass., April 30 /PRNewswire/ -- Genstruct Inc., a systems biology company focused on identifying molecular mechanisms, networks and biomarkers to better understand large scale biology, today announced that its joint collaboration with Sirtris Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: SIRT), a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing small molecule drugs to treat diseases of aging, has won Bio-IT World magazine's 2008 Best Practices Award in the Drug Discovery & Development category. The project was focused on discovering mechanisms of action (MOA) for Type 2 diabetes.
The two companies collaborated to further characterize the molecular MOA of Sirt1 activating compounds. In blinded analysis, Genstruct's causal network modeling (CNM) approach concluded that the strongest hypothesis for the results seen in the Sirtris Type 2 diabetes study was caloric restriction (CR) -- showing that Sirtris' SIRT1 activators are mimicking the effects of CR. These results were confirmed by in vitro and in vivo experimentations.
"We are honored that our collaboration with Sirtris has been recognized for our unique approach to modeling complex biological systems," said Dr. Keith O. Elliston, president and CEO at Genstruct. "Using our CNM platform, we were able to help develop a deep understanding of the SIRT1 pathway and allowed Sirtris to efficiently analyze a vast quantity of data. Sirtris has been a valued research partner for our firm."
Genstruct's unique CNM platform for systems biology has been designed to integrate and model data from multiple large-scale measurement modalities and has been successfully applied to biomarker discovery, MOA definition and drug safety assessment.
Genstruct and Sirtris received this award on April 29 at the 2008 Best Practices VIP Gala Awards Dinner at the World Trade Center in Boston, Mass. Fifty-five entries were submitted and were judged by a panel of experts based on the nominees' novel and innovative uses of technology to improve the efficiency and economics of R&D, drug discovery and clinical research and trials.
About Genstruct
Founded in 2002, Genstruct is a biotechnology company focused on elucidating the complexity of biology for the development of successful therapeutics. By modeling the components within the whole biological system, Genstruct delivers a deep molecular understanding of diseases and drug action, as well as mechanistic biomarkers to accelerate drug discovery and development programs. Genstruct engages in internal discovery and external development partnerships with top tier pharmaceutical companies, which apply systems biology in the areas of oncology, metabolic disorders, cardiovascular diseases and inflammation. The privately held company is based in Cambridge, Mass. For more information, please visit http://www.genstruct.com.
Genstruct and the Genstruct logo are registered trademarks and Molecular Epistemics, Knowledge Assembly, and Epistemics Engine are trademarks of Genstruct, Inc. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are properties of their respective owners.
SOURCE Genstruct Inc.
