Thursday, 05. February 2009

First milestone reached in research project on the predictive modeling of cancer therapies

Bayer Technology Services and renowned institutions in BMBF FORSYS project

Systems Biology opens up new approaches to therapy. The proof of concept and thus the first milestone has been reached in the project “A Systems Biology Approach towards Predictive Cancer Therapy.” The project is part of the EUR 50 million FORSYS (Research Units for Systems Biology) research program initiated by the German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) to develop new approaches for cancer therapy. Bayer Technology Services GmbH (BTS) is collaborating with an interdisciplinary team of doctors, engineers, biologists, and pharmacologists from renowned international institutions to model cancer therapies using recombinant antibody fusion proteins. Therapeutic proteins are a promising approach for the treatment of cancer and many other life-threatening diseases.

Bayer Technology Services contributes many years of experience and its software solutions in physiology-based pharmokinetics and pharmodynamics to the collaborative project. With the help of these mathematical simulations, the distribution and effect of specific protein therapeutics in the human body can be calculated. This will facilitate the design of clinical studies and thus help to reduce the development costs of new pharmaceuticals. The methods also promise more precise dosing during therapy. 

“We are very satisfied with the results obtained so far, such as the improved efficacy of the fusion proteins. We have established the foundation for the next project milestones,” says Prof. Klaus Pfizenmaier, Head of the Institute for Cell Biology and Immunology at the University of Stuttgart and coordinator of the research project, summing up the first workshop of the research consortium founded in September 2008.

Joining BTS in the three-year project are research groups from the Universities of Tübingen, Stuttgart, and Magdeburg; the Dr. Margarete Fischer-Bosch Institute for Clinical Pharmacology, Stuttgart, and the Max Planck Institute for the Dynamics of Complex Technical Systems, Magdeburg; and Celonic GmbH, Jülich.

Bayer Technology Services GmbH offers fully-integrated solutions along the life cycle of chemical/pharmaceutical plants – from development through engineering and construction to process optimization for existing plants. BTS also offers a broad range of products and services for all stages of diagnostics and drug research and development. Examples include nanophosphors, the pharmacokinetics simulation software PK-Sim®, and data-mining and modeling technologies. The Bayer subsidiary employs nearly 2,600 experts worldwide at its headquarters in Leverkusen and other German locations, as well as in regional offices in Baytown, Texas, USA; Antwerp, Belgium; Mexico City, Mexico; Mumbai, India; and Shanghai, People's Republic of China. 2007 sales totaled approx. EUR 400 million.

For more information about Bayer Technology Services got to: www.bayertechnology.com.

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