A commercial-stage company focused on generating data-driven insights to diagnose, understand and treat rare diseases, and Insilico Medicine, an end-to-end Artificial Intelligence (AI) - driven drug discovery company, today announced a research and development collaboration to accelerate the discovery of novel therapeutic targets for Niemann-Pick disease type C. The duration of the research collaboration will initially last 20 weeks.
As the framework for the collaboration, CENTOGENE will leverage its Bio/Databank with multiomic patient data and NPC cell lines (for transcriptomic data and validation of identified candidates), through the use of Insilico's comprehensive novel target discovery AI platform for the identification of differential metabolites, pathways, and genetic modifiers. Both Companies will analyze identified targets before pursuing validation in CENTOGENE's cellular models, and CENTOGENE will retain exclusive rights to any intellectual property generated by the research.
"I am thrilled by the collaboration between CENTOGENE and Insilico. With the power of AI, we will accelerate the analysis and knowledge discovery of multiomic data from patients affected with NPC," said Patrice Denèfle, Chief Scientific Officer at CENTOGENE. "Using relevant human cellular models, we will be able to crack the code and validate meaningful and valuable insights on a disease for which no cure has been found over the past decades using traditional pharma approaches."
CENTOGENE's rare disease-centric Bio/Databank is unique in the richness of the data it holds. By leveraging Insilico's powerful proprietary AI platform, PandaOmics, with the multiomic research data from CENTOGENE, I hope our collaboration will result in the discovery of a therapeutic target for NPC. Ultimately we want to improve the quality of life for those affected by the disease and bring tangible hope to thousands of NPC patients around the world."
Alex Zhavoronkov, Ph.D., Founder and CEO of Insilico Medicine
If the research demonstrates translational robustness, a further stage of drug development would become accessible – identifying molecules that act on the identified targets. AI-based methods are expected to accelerate this process – ultimately turning years into months for both the target-to-hit and hit-to-lead phases.
"We are excited to be working together with Insilico as we seek to identify novel therapeutic targets for NPC," added Carsten Ullrich, Ph.D., Senior Director of Artificial Intelligence at CENTOGENE. "Combining both CENTOGENE's expertise in multiomics and unique global insights from the world's largest NPC cohort with Insilico's next-generation AI platform has the potential to enable an accelerated cure for this rare and often rapidly progressing disease."
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