GNI opens research facility in Fukuoka, Japan

By E. Janene Geiss

Philadelphia, March 24 - Biopharmaceutical company GNI said Friday that it has opened its new GNI Systems Pharmacology Research Institute in Fukuoka, Japan.

The new facility will integrate the gene network analytical work being conducted at GNI's Kurume Research Laboratory with the GNI research group at Kyushu University and support their activities with new in-house supercomputers, according to a company news release.

The GNI Systems Pharmacology Research Institute, which combines biochemical experimentation with systems-science based technologies to analyze drug affected pathways in human cells, is located at the Fukuoka System Large Scale Integration Multipurpose Development Center.

Using specialized supercomputers and vast quantities of GNI proprietary gene regulation data from human cells, the center is capable of quickly analyzing the regulatory networks across the human genome that determine responses to drugs and drug candidates, officials said.

This capability allows GNI to develop safer drugs with fewer side effects and to quickly discover effective and low-risk drug target genes.

The new center will operate at the heart of the collaboration between GNI and the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom and its research departments in Shanghai Genomics in China to further advance GNI's global drug development capabilities, Christopher Savoie, GNI's chairman, chief executive officer and founder, said in the release.

GNI said it has worked alongside the University of Cambridge, the University of Tokyo and Kyushu University to develop algorithms and experimental data that together comprise a powerful analytical system capable of testing the efficacy of drugs. Using this and other advanced research techniques, the GNI group has been engaged in joint research projects with a number of leading pharmaceutical companies, officials said.

GNI is a Tokyo-based biopharmaceutical company with operations in Japan, China, the United Kingdom and the United States. GNI has used ethically approved methods to successfully map the gene regulatory networks via a complex process of reverse engineering.

In June 2005, GNI merged with Shanghai Genomics, which operates an integrated drug discovery platform, combining genetic discovery and drug development.

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