Siemens and Biomax Informatics in alliance in gene expression simulation

German companies Siemens Corporate Technology, of Munich, and Biomax Informatics, of Martinsried, have made a strategic alliance in the area of gene expression modelling and simulation.

The companies say that a combination of their complementary technologies will allow scientists to go beyond common numeric analysis of their gene expression data and simulate gene expression research for the first time.

BioSim, developed by Siemens, recognises inter-related dependencies within gene expression data, which can now be used for planning experiments. Subsequently, correlations uncovered in the simulation are placed in a relevant functional and biological context using the Biomax BioXM Gene Expression Analysis Tool. These steps allow underlying biological mechanisms to be elucidated.

The particular strength of the new method is said to be the possibility to simulate changes in the expression of individual genes and monitor the effect on the expression of other genes. In this way, scientist can plan data acquisition more rationally, thereby minimising experimental efforts.

'We are excited to see this technology being successfully applied in the biomedical field and opening new approaches for the better understanding of complex diseases,' said Professor Schuermann, head of neural computation at Siemens Corporate Technology. 'Experiments that can not yet be performed in vivo can now be done in silico,' added Klaus Heumann, ceo of Biomax.