- Seattle, WA USA
Pioneering US/Scottish Alliance for Life Science and Clinical Informatics
Aridhia Informatics Ltd and Glencoe Software have formed a strategic partnership to create innovative products to aid the development of personalised therapies and deliver improved patient outcomes.
Anticipating an increased focus on stratified medicine in coming years, the two companies will work together to create products for the international healthcare, life and biomedical science markets using real world clinical, genetic and research information.
Aridhia’s specialist capabilities in accessing, storing and analysing health care information will be brought together with Glencoe’s expertise in managing, sharing and publishing large scientific datasets generated in laboratories around the world.
As part of the agreement, Scottish company Aridhia will make a major investment in Seattle-based Glencoe to further accelerate its already-rapid growth in these areas.
Both Glencoe Software and Aridhia Informatics are start-ups based on technology and expertise developed at the University of Dundee, Dundee, Scotland.
Professor Peter Downes, Principal of the University, said, “Dundee is a great place for life sciences companies, such as Aridhia and Glencoe to do business. Their collaboration here will create jobs and further strengthen our innovation economy. It is good news for Dundee and good news for Scotland.”
Professor Andrew Morris, Director of the Medical Research Institute at the University of Dundee, and co-founder of Aridhia Informatics said, “This partnership brings together complementary strengths needed to accelerate the innovation of stratified “or personalised“ medicines. Our vision is to become a world leader in providing the clinical and scientific information required for the personalised, targeted drugs and treatments of the future. The UK is a good place to do this work because of the opportunities for open innovation between NHS, academic and commercial partners.”
Professor Jason Swedlow, President of Glencoe Software, Inc., and co-founder of OME, said, “OME and Glencoe Software are particularly excited about this partnership. We look forward to working with the Aridhia Informatics team to develop new tools for the life sciences and clinical data markets. The challenge is huge, but the potential benefit for biomedical research and patient outcomes is enormous.”
Aridhia Informatics is a joint venture between the University of Dundee, NHS Tayside and Sumerian. Aridhia provides a unique combination of clinical expertise, academic excellence and high performance computing experience to generate real time information services that improve the safety, quality and efficiency of health care. The company has raised over £6.5M of external capital investment since its founding in 2008.
Glencoe Software, incorporated in Seattle, USA has developed technology platforms that are based on open source software built by the Open Microscopy Environment (OME). Founded in 2000, OME builds and releases software tools for the analysis of very large scientific image datasets. Its tools are used globally throughout the academic and commercial communities. Glencoe Software is a major contributor to OME’s efforts, and has used OME technology to build many different products, including the Journal of Cell Biology DataViewer, the world’s first on-line scientific image data publication system and various solutions for microscopy and high content screening in the academic and pharmaceutical markets.
Dr David Sibbald, Chairman of Aridhia, said, “We relish the opportunity to partner with Glencoe. This will act as an accelerator to link the laboratory to the clinic. We see this investment as prescient with the real prospect of using individual genetic and imaging information to tailor treatment for individual patients, so called personalized medicine. We anticipate it will not only deliver real benefits to patients and health care professionals, but also will deliver economic advantages associated with world leading, unique research.”
About Aridhia
Aridhia Informatics is a multidisciplinary health informatics company whose goal is to improve the quality, efficiency and delivery of health services, and make a real impact on patients’ lives through health care analytics. A joint venture between NHS Tayside, the University of Dundee and Sumerian, Aridhia provides a unique combination of clinical expertise, academic excellence and high performance computing experience to generate a unified patient view of healthcare event information, including specific services for patient tracking, clinical dashboards and long term condition management tools. Aridhia is also the lead development partner in the Kuwait Scotland eHealth Innovation Network, which aims to draw upon best practice in Kuwait and Scotland to develop systems for high quality patient care in Kuwait. www.aridhia.com
About the University of Dundee
The University of Dundee is internationally recognised for its excellence in life sciences and medical research with particular expertise in cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and skin diseases. The University has a top-rated medical school with research expanding from “the cell to the clinic to the community”, while the College of Life Sciences is home to some of the world’s most cited scientists and more than 800 research staff from 60 different countries. www.dundee.ac.uk