Technologies
From genome to candidate
Next generation sequencing has brought a huge mass of easily available genome information. From eukaryotes but to an even higher degree from bacteria, either whole genome or environmental. Very often projects start with a growing bulk of public and/or in-house genome sets. Those will be annotated, screened for targets of interest according to biologically meaningful criteria (such as in reverse vaccinology). And optimally homologues within and between organisms are included for selection of most robust candidates.
Gene/Protein/Drug/Disease association networks
Networks can be an interesting basis for ranking gene/protein targets, inferring new applications for existing targets (including drugs) or finding associated molecules not protected by current intellectual property. Public databases such as STRING, STITCH and many more as well as client's in-house sources, optionally with differential gene regulation data, allow to infer relationship networks of genes, proteins, drugs and diseases. Those networks can be made use of in various ways, such as selecting closely associated factors not protected by IP or those closely associated with a disease and having known drugs associated.
Mining patent and literature databases
Unstructured text sources such as NCBI Medline have grown to extents impossible to survey manually. Textmining is a useful approach to find associations of genes/proteins, drugs and diseases from public databases, including IP databases or protein annotation resources. Those associations can be made use of for ranking targets or also to identify potential problems such as possible side-effects early on in the development process.
Competence & Consulting
Being only human we tend to lose perspective when spending too much time in a single focused project or a related set of projects within our peer group. Frequently no extensive analysis is required, but primarily ideas how to proceed strategically. In those cases sodatana can assist by providing competence in computational biology, where automation may be a good choice or simply by providing biological or immunological competence. No-one is a specialist in all aspects of a field or even a project, and here a fresh mind coming from outside can make a critical difference. First by providing summaries of state-of-the art (which is also important for IP matters) but also by providing an outside perspective, connecting to novel applications, pointing out potential flaws and risks and suggesting experimental or routes or cooperation with third parties.
Your project
Every project is new and unique. Although often existing technologies can be re-used every project needs its own set of perspectives and utilities, sometimes to be newly developed. More on the technical side compared to consulting sodatana can help you to find the solution you actually need.
