Mount Sinai School of Medicine (Mount Sinai) and Pacific Biosciences of California, Inc. (NASDAQ: PACB) announced a bi-coastal collaboration to advance clinical research through the Mount Sinai Institute for Genomics and Multiscale Biology to be led by Eric E. Schadt, Ph.D. The Institute is the hub of genomics research at Mount Sinai, collaborating with 13 other disease oriented and core technology based Institutes at Mount Sinai. One of the world's foremost experts in computational biology, Dr. Schadt will direct the Institute, and also continue in his role as Chief Scientific Officer of Pacific Biosciences.
As part of the collaboration, a Single Molecule Real Time (SMRT™) Biology User Facility will be established within the Institute. Developed by Pacific Biosciences, SMRT technology allows for the real-time analysis of biomolecules with single molecule resolution, providing a window into biological processes that has not previously been open for study.
"The large-scale generation and integration of multiple sources of biological data combined with clinical information will expand our ability to characterize disease, and ultimately help develop and improve the diagnosis and treatment of patients. This is the primary research mission of Mount Sinai School of Medicine," said Dennis S. Charney, M.D., Dean of Mount Sinai School of Medicine. "With unprecedented access to Pacific Biosciences' revolutionary technology and under the direction of Dr. Schadt, the Institute for Genomics and Multiscale Biology will be at the forefront of the revolution in genetics and genomic sciences, which will fundamentally change the practice of medicine."
Dr. Schadt is an expert on the generation and integration of very large-scale sequence variation, molecular profiling and clinical data in disease populations for constructing molecular networks that define disease states and link molecular biology to physiology. His research has provided novel insights into what is needed to master diverse, large-scale data collected on normal and disease populations in order to elucidate the complexity of disease and make more informed decisions in the drug discovery arena. He has contributed to a number of discoveries relating to the genetic basis of common human diseases such as diabetes and obesity, which have been widely published in leading scientific journals.
"The alliance between PacBio and Mount Sinai, and my dual role working with both organizations, will allow us to bring together the components required to catapult a new paradigm for clinical research and translational medicine," said Dr. Schadt. "Multiscale data integration, including genomic, expression, metabolite, protein, and clinical information, will ultimately define the future of patient care. With our intent to collaborate in areas such as newborn screening for rare genetic disorders, infectious diseases and cancer we hope to accelerate this revolution, starting by integrating clinical data with previously untapped biological information to build new computational models for predicting human disease."
Dr. Schadt is also a founding member of Sage Bionetworks, an open access genomics initiative designed to build and support databases and an accessible platform for creating innovative dynamic disease models. Prior to joining Pacific Biosciences in 2009, he was Executive Scientific Director of Genetics at Rosetta Inpharmatics, a subsidiary of Merck & Co., Inc. in Seattle. Prior to joining Rosetta, Dr. Schadt was a Senior Research Scientist at Roche Bioscience. He received his B.A. in applied mathematics and computer science from California Polytechnic State University, his M.A. in pure mathematics from University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and his Ph.D. in bio-mathematics from UCLA.
The SMRT Biology User Facility at Mount Sinai will be equipped with research and development versions of the PacBio SMRT technology platforms. These systems, called Astros, have been used by Pacific Biosciences and its collaborators to examine a number of important biological processes including DNA sequencing, direct RNA sequencing, protein translation and ligand binding. The SMRT systems will be available for use by the Mount Sinai Institute for Genomics and Multiscale Biology and other collaborators located in the eastern half of the United States. Pacific Biosciences will also continue to engage in SMRT biology research collaborations from its headquarters in California.
"With a strong commitment, shared vision, and extensive access to patient samples, we believe Mount Sinai is a perfect partner to help realize the promise of SMRT technology in clinical applications," said Hugh Martin, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Pacific Biosciences.
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