Biomarkers discovery

Personalized medicine and Companion diagnosis

Bioinformatics developments leading to new leads and diagnostic selection

Biomarkers discovery

Skuldtech focuses on the discovery of genomics biomarkers and their use in combination with advanced therapeutics to improve diagnostics and treatments.

Our approach is based on the investigation of gene expression changes. The genomic biomarkers derived from our high throughput pyrosequencing method can provide a significant amount of additional data in the analysis of biological phenotypes.

Skuldtech genomic biomarkers could be applied in several activities including:

• disease detection and classification,
• patient stratification,
• treatment response prediction,
• assessment of drug toxicity and treatment efficiency,
• disease prognosis.

The gene expression biomarker-based approach has been implemented by Skuldtech in response to the growing need for reducing risks in drug development and improving patient outcomes for pharmaceutical companies and healthcare providers.

Personalized medicine and companion diagnosis

Skuldtech's approach in personalized medicine and companion diagnostics is based on the concept expressed recently by Francis Collins, Director of NIH's National Human Genome Research Institute: "The idea that we practice medicine that doesn't take into consideration the individual is quite irrational. We don't think of buying shoes in a single size for heaven's sake, so why should we be satisfied with one-size-fits-all medicine?"

Personalized Medicine

Skuldtech has been involved in personalized medicine due to its technique and know-how enabling to identify genomics based on biomarkers associated with gene expression – phenotypes – changes. Skuldtech is working towards developping daily practice tools on the basis of new identified genomic biomarkers.

A patient's response to a specific medication may not simply be determined by a single gene, but by several genes and their interacting products. Skuldtech's genomic biomarkers can meet this challenge in personalized medicine.

The biomarkers developed in this way by Skuldtech can be used for:

• Diagnosing diseases or predicting risks of disease,
• Determining whether a treatment is efficient or not,
• Monitoring healthy people to detect early signs of disease,
• Producing safer drugs by predicting the potential for adverse effects earlier,
• Targeting specific groups of people for whom a particular drug may be useful, while not using it for those for whom it may prove harmful,
• Providing researchers with the opportunity of having a global view of the events and changes that are always occurring within a cell.

Greater progress may be made in personalized medicine through using molecular genomic-based diagnostics.

Companion Diagnostics

Skuldtech is involved in the development of companion diagnostics which can be defined as a diagnostic specifically associated with a therapy.

Therefore, Skuldtech is focusing its biomarker strategy for the companion diagnosis purpose on gene expression changes under drugs regimes. Gene expression signatures can predict patients' response to treatment. These gene expression changes can also be used as predictors and modulators of cellular sensitivity to cancer chemotherapeutics, for instance.

Companion diagnostics can help physicians tailor a treatment for each patient through several potential applications such as:

• Selection of optimal therapy,
• Reduction of Adverse Drug Reactions,
• Treatment monitoring,
• Reduction of clinical trial costs, duration and failure rates,
• Drug rescue: off-market drugs and failing trials.

Companion Diagnostics could revolutionize medical practices by enabling to prescribe safer and more effective drugs for patients with clearly identified biomarkers. Our aim is to deliver “the right dose of the right drug to the right patient at the right time”

Bioinformatics developments leading to new leads and diagnostic selection

Based on ten years of experience of working with computational experts and biological specialists, Skuldtech's bioinformatic platform has been dedicated to genomic data management and it is to play a leading role in the following developments:

• analyzing the results generated by its high throughput system, including:
  
  • Sequence analysis,
  • Analysis of gene expression,
  • Analysis of regulation,
  • Measuring biodiversity,
  • etc.,

• integrating all these data into a network of interacting routes which provides the biotechnology industry and clinicians with the accurate targets or right information for curing patients.
  
  

Due to the fact that diseases and physiological adaptations are not linked to a single genetic modification occurring in a specific manner, but to complex routes associated with genetic networks, which interact with each other, Skuldtech has developed bioinformatic tools to help researchers and physicians:

• understand the complex interactions between the genetic networks,
• gather considerable amounts of closely related medical and biological data,
• provide a comprehensive overview of diseases through the data connection.

This comprehensive overview of medical disorders will enable to:

• improve treatments for patients,
• reduce the cost of care through a more efficient treatment targeting strategy,
• contribute to the development of new drugs or new treatments for serious diseases with significant unmet medical needs.
  
  

Therefore, Skuldtech bioinformatics represent a driving factor in computational sciences for managing the wealth of data that are to be generated in the medical revolution over the next decade.