MediSapiens has announced it is taking part in a newly established genomic research project, which focuses on comparing dog and human genomes to advance human health.
Established by professor Hannes Lohi at the University of Helsinki, and professors Juha Kere and Carsten Daub at Karolinska Institute, the project aims to update the dog genome map and use this important information to model various diseases in humans.
Project leader Hannes Lohi says: "Following the advances of the Functional Annotation of Mammalian genome project (FANTOM), in which our colleagues at Karolinska Institute have been involved, our project will make a substantial contribution in updating the dog genetic map."
"This will help to identify disease-associated genetic alterations and enable their efficient comparison with the human genome. The project also builds on substantial previous research and a large dog biobank and supports other ongoing initiatives, such as the international 10,000 Dog Genomes Project."
"We are excited about the important advances this project will make. We’re dedicated to participate in scientific initiatives which have the potential to make significant improvements in our understanding of health and disease, and eventually contribute to improvements in human healthcare. This project has the potential to make a vast impact", says Henrik Edgren, CSO of MediSapiens. "We’re delighted to strengthen our long-term partnerships with both academic and industrial partners."
MediSapiens will contribute by providing Bio-IT and bioinformatics expertise and software to help the consortium analyse and interpret dog genomic data and in the functional annotation of known and newly discovered genes.
Research partners Genoscoper Oy and Mars Veterinary™ will also provide their support. The four-year project has received a €1.5 million grant from the Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation and additional support from research partners.