SCIENCE

Gene Network Sciences (GNS) today announced that it has been awarded two Phase One Small Business Innovation Research Grants from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Each six-month grant is for $99,960. One grant is being used to develop a simulation platform for creating data-driven computer models of cardiac electrophysiology. The second grant will help GNS extend its technology to include models of key cardiac signaling networks. "One of the leading causes of market withdrawals and drug failure in late clinical trials is cardiac side effects. We see huge upside potential in helping pharmaceutical companies better understand how and why their drugs impact the heart," said Dr. Jeffrey Fox, director of physiology at GNS. "The simulation platform will provide a solid foundation for constructing comprehensive computer models of cardiac electrical function. The funding provided by the second grant will help us to begin incorporating protein networks that are important to heart function into our models." The simulation platform will connect molecular-level data on cardiac ion channel function to tissue-level properties. In this way, detailed, data-driven simulations of cardiac electrical activity can be developed, and then used to identify pro-arrhythmic markers, mechanism of action of drugs, and drug targets. GNS will collaborate with Dr. Robert Gilmour at Cornell University during the development and testing of the platform and the modeling of cardiac signaling networks. These are the second and third NIH grants awarded in the past year to research teams led by Gilmour and Fox. Last February, GNS and Cornell announced that the teams, in conjunction with UCSD, won a $2 million, four-year Bioengineering Research Grant to characterize ion channels via a computer model of the canine ventricle. This research aims to better understand the underlying mechanisms for ventricular fibrillation and to eventually have an impact on the diagnosis and treatment of deadly heart rhythm disorders. GNS Establishes Cardiovascular Scientific Advisory Board In other news, GNS named five renowned researchers as charter members of its cardiovascular scientific advisory board. The board members are: -- Dr. Charles Antzelevitch, executive director and director of research at the Masonic Medical Research Laboratory; -- Dr. Robert Gilmour, professor of physiology and associate dean for research and graduate education at the College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell University; -- Dr. Leon Glass, Isadore Rosenfeld Chair in cardiology and professor of physiology at McGill University; -- Dr. Wouter-Jan Rappel, research scientist in the Department of Physics at UCSD and senior scientist at the Center For Theoretical Biological Physics; and -- Dr. James Weiss, chief of the Division of Cardiology and director of the Cardiovascular Research Laboratory at UCLA. "Our cardio SAB members are luminaries who conduct pivotal research on heart dynamics. We're honored to work with such a high-caliber team and look forward to their input as we develop our cardiac models," said Colin Hill, CEO and co-founder of GNS.