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GNI Forms Marketing Alliance With Wako Pure Chemical

Posted on: Thursday, 18 January 2007, 06:00 CST

GNI Ltd, a leading biopharmaceutical company in Asia, today announced that it has formed an alliance with Wako Pure Chemical Industries, Ltd. to market Cell Illustrator 3.0. A biological illustration and biopathway modeling software tool, Cell Illustrator 3.0 was developed by GNI in cooperation with the University of Tokyo's Institute of Medical Science, under Professor Satoru Miyano. From April 2007, Wako Pure Chemical will sell the software through its more than seventy partner agencies throughout Japan.

Cell Illustrator 3.0 allows biologists to more easily create computer images and simulations of complex metabolic and gene regulatory pathways, signal transduction cascades and dynamic biological interactions. Biologists can then observe and verify the behavior of those entities. In developing the software, the University of Tokyo used proprietary high-performance visual modeling architecture based on Petri net1.

Cell Illustrator was developed by GNI along with University of Tokyo to support the company's own research efforts as well as research collaborations with other pharmaceutical companies. A tested industrial-quality software system, Cell Illustrator is also already in use by the Institute for Molecular Bioscience and the ARC Center in Bioinformatics' Visible CellTM project at the University of Queensland in Australia.

The first version of Cell Illustrator was developed by GNI and the University of Tokyo and launched in 2002. The latest offering runs on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux platforms and enables biologists to visually analyze biological pathways. Also provided with the software is a gene network data sample, based on baker's yeast. GNI was the first organization in the world to succeed in large-scale mapping of human gene regulatory networks. Data on the results of this research is available for purchase.

GNI offers variants on Cell Illustrator 3.0 to private-sector professionals, universities, colleges and other educational institutions, and for use by students and the general public. Users can easily download and install the software and can access an online forum on use of the software, maintained by GNI.

The three versions of Cell Illustrator are:

1. Cell Illustrator Professional

Contains a complete range of features for pathway modeling at all scales, allowing users to optimize productivity and efficiency.

2. Cell Illustrator Classroom

Incorporates functions required by universities, colleges, and other educational institutions to practice with smaller pathways at affordable rates.

3. Cell Illustrator Draw

Offers those aspiring to be medical professionals a package containing basic features, available without charge, to create pathways.

GNI's Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and founder, Dr. Christopher Savoie, said, "In biological research today, high speed data analysis is extremely important. The sales alliance with Wako Pure Chemical is significant because it will introduce more companies and educational institutions to the benefits of Cell Illustrator 3.0 in analyzing genetic networks. In addition, GNI looks forward to helping to cultivate tomorrow's medical professionals by offering a free version of the software that enables students and the general public to simulate biological pathways."

Professor Mark Ragan of the University of Queensland added, "This is a highly valuable tool in helping to advance the research efforts undertaken here for the Visible CellTM project. It is a goal of the Visible CellTM project to map the output of Cell Illustrator onto a 3D physical model of the cell so that network models can be integrated and visualized into the Cell Visualiser environment."

Notes to editors

About GNI

Founded in 2001, GNI, a leader in the field of integrated systems pharmacology, is an international biopharmaceutical company with operations in Japan, China, the U.K. and the U.S. GNI has used ethically approved methods to successfully map gene regulatory networks via a complex process of reverse-engineering. Furthermore, GNI has successfully developed the technology required to apply this data to drug development and discovery, a feat that has not been achieved by any other organization. In June 2005, Shanghai Genomics, which operates an integrated drug discovery platform combining genetic discovery and drug development, became an affiliate of GNI. In April 2006, GNI announced an investment in Beijing Continent Pharmaceutical which gives the company access to manufacturing and distribution in China. For further information, please visit www.gene-networks.com

About Wako Pure Chemical Industries, Ltd.

Established in 1922 as a comprehensive reagent manufacturer, Waco Pure Chemical Industries, Ltd. offers high-quality products for advanced research. The company harnesses proprietary technologies in its core businesses of laboratory chemicals, specialty chemicals and diagnostic reagents for a broad customer base that encompasses researchers, medical practitioners, and industrial corporations. Further details are available at: http://www.wako-chem.co.jp/egaiyo/index.htm

About The Human Genome Center, Institute of Medical Science, University of Tokyo

The Human Genome Center was established by the University of Tokyo's Institute of Medical Science in 1991 to oversee human genome planning for the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sport, Science and Technology. The Center's supercomputers analyze massive volumes of data for advanced research on cancer and other treatment-resistant illnesses. Professor Satoru Miyano and Assistant Professor Masao Nagasaki head the Center's research on DNA information analysis. Further details are available at: http://www.hgc.jp/english/

1 Prof. Dr. Carl Adam Petri of Germany devised the Petri net modeling technique for describing, designing, analyzing, and verifying information and control systems.

Source: Business Wire

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