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By Julie Steenhuysen
CHICAGO, Sept 30 (Reuters) - Berg, a private company thatuses artificial intelligence to discover new drugs anddiagnostics, will help England's national genomics project mineDNA and health data from thousands of British citizens forpotential drug targets.
Berg, based in Boston, was co-founded in 2006 by SiliconValley real estate billionaire Carl Berg. Since then, it hasbeen working to change the way drugs are discovered, working inpartnership with key players such as the U.S. Department ofDefense and the Parkinson's Institute Clinical Center.
Its newest agreement is with the Genomics England 100,000Genomes Project, which aims to accelerate development of newdiagnostics and treatments through a year-long industry trial,company executives told Reuters.
The project focuses on patients with rare diseases and sixcommon cancers. Industry partners include drugmakers such asRoche, Biogen, AstraZeneca andGlaxoSmithKline.
Berg uses artificial intelligence "to look at patterns inthe data to find areas in the biology that are fingerprints ofthat disease," Niven Narain, Berg's co-founder and president,said in an interview. It plans to open a UK office in the nextyear to shepherd the project and seek new collaborations withdrug company and academic partners in Europe.
Leading biotech companies are collecting genomic informationon hundreds of thousands of patients to search for new drugleads.
Berg says its approach allows it to add far more data pointsin addition to DNA. The company uses its artificial intelligencesupercomputer platform - known to insiders as 'Betsy' - to lookat what is going on inside cells, studying all the proteins, thelipids that form cell membranes and govern cell communicationand the way cells metabolize energy.
Since last April, it has worked with Beth Israel DeaconessMedical Center and the Pancreatic Cancer Research Team to huntfor leads on pancreatic cancer by analyzing blood samples fromnearly 1,900 patients.
"The Berg approach essentially does away with the assumptionthat genes, by themselves, are responsible for disease or theabsence of it," said Dr. James Moser of Beth Israel Deaconess.
Berg is also planning Phase 2 trials in early 2016 for itsexperimental cancer drug called BPM 31510 aimed at treatingsolid tumors, Narain said. The treatment works by reversingchanges in the metabolism of cancer cells that allow them tothrive.
The drug was based on predictions from the computer model,which helped the company choose how to develop the drug. Early-stage data suggests the drug helps shrink tumors when usedalone, and increases the potency of chemotherapy when used incombination.
"We're seeing responses in gastric cancer, esophagealcancer, pancreatic cancer, liver cancer, renal cell sarcomas" -all highly metabolic tumors, Narain said. (Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen; Editing by Alan Crosby)
