U-PGx EU project for supporting the application of pharmacogenomics in clinical practice / bio.logis responsible for implementing genetic information management systems at selected hospitals
Pharmacogenomics deals with the questions of whether an individual's genetic make-up affects the efficacy of drugs and/or how to leverage genetic information to optimize drug therapies. The buzz word is: Personalized medicine. The EU is now making a total of €15m available for driving the practical implementation of genetic knowledge to improve therapeutic decision-making. This supports the European U-PGx (Ubiquitous Pharmacogenomics) consortium. bio.logis Genetic Information Management GmbH, based in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, is a member of this consortium and has been concentrating on the issue for years, with a specific focus on developing genetic information management systems. bio.logis will receive €2.4m from these funds to implement its Genetic Information Management Suite (GIMS) along with technologies for genotyping in selected hospitals across Europe (the Netherlands, UK, Austria, Greece, Italy, Spain, Slovenia) for application in day-to-day clinical operations.
"In the long-term, personalized medicine will become a standard option for medical treatment," says Professor Henk-Jan Guchelaar, Head of the Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Toxicology at the Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands, and coordinator of the U-PGx project. The consortium's and the EU's objective is to optimize therapies and treatments based on genetic insight and to make them available to all European citizens.
Apart from basic research and developing specific therapies, a decisive aspect is the development and application of relevant genotyping technologies. In addition, IT systems are required for processing genetic information to leverage them for medical decision-making. This latter discipline is what bio.logis Genetic Information Management (GIM), a bio.logis division, is specializing in. Its GIMS is the leading solution in Europe, and the division is now receiving funds from the EU budget for integrating its system into the clinical workflows of selected European hospitals.
"Implementing our Genetic Information Management solution in seven European hospitals that are leaders in pharmacogenomics brings us a huge step closer to our goal, i.e., providing genetic information for medical decision-making on as wide a basis and for as many patients as possible," says Prof. Dr. med. Daniela Steinberger, Human Geneticist, Medical Director and Managing Director of bio.logis Genetic Information Management GmbH.
bio.logis is also participating in another EU project which, under Dutch leadership, is developing concepts for a "Genetics Clinic of the Future (GCOF)." This project also aims at driving the clinical implementation of genetic information.
About bio.logis Genetic Information Management GmbH
bio.logis Genetic Information Management GmbH translates genetic data into medically leverageable information and makes it available to physicians and patients. To that end, it has developed a special "Genetic Information Management Suite (GIMS)" IT solution which, in the process chain required for genetic diagnostics, focuses on the "last mile" to physicians and patients by merging raw genetic data with clinically leverageable knowledge for prompt application. GIMS supports physicians both in laboratories for automatically generating such expert content, and in hospitals with specific clinical suggestions. The diagnostic reports and medical recommendations generated with GIMS are delivered straight to the point of care via laboratory and physician information systems as well as electronic health records.
About U-PGx (Ubiquitous Pharmacogenomics)
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 668353.
Press Relations:
Dr. Maike Post
bio.logis Genetic Information Management GmbH
Altenhöferallee 3
D-60438 Frankfurt am Main
Phone: +49 (0) 69 530 8437 33
Fax: +49 (0) 69 530 8437 11
maike.post@bio.logis.de
Prof. Dr. med. Daniela Steinberger
bio.logis Genetic Information Management GmbH
Altenhöferallee 3
D-60438 Frankfurt am Main
Phone: +49 (0) 69 530 8437 0
Fax: +49 (0) 69 530 8437 11
daniela.steinberger@bio.logis.de
Manuela Rost-Hein
Ketchum Pleon
c/o Torstrasse 140
D-10119 Berlin
Phone: +49 (0) 30 400 54 752
manuela.rost-hein@ketchumpleon.com