Nature Methods publishes comparative study of leading Protein-Protein Interaction Networks

Nature Methods published (online) a comparative study of leading Protein-Protein Interaction (PPI) Networks. The publication entitled “A scored human protein-protein interaction network to catalyze genomic interpretation” finds Intomics’ InBio Map™ (entitled InWeb_IM in the publication) to have twice as much data as the second largest network and have 16% better ability to discover pathways.

“We are very proud of the conclusions in this publication. InBio Map™ was from the very beginning designed as a high-quality resource that could facilitate the next generation of biological discoveries and this comparative study confirms its potential.” says CEO of Intomics, Thomas Skot Jensen and continues, “In line with the findings in the publication, Intomics has applied the InBio Map extensively in our work for world-leading pharmaceutical companies and have found that it can provide unique new insights into biology”.

Corresponding author, Kasper Lage, assistant professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School, adds:

The rapidly declining cost of genome sequencing has far outpaced our ability to interpret the gene variants we identify in patients with undiagnosed diseases. By exploring interaction networks at the level of proteins and of the genes that may be causing a disease, clinicians may begin to see patterns of genetic data that would otherwise be difficult to discern, which we illustrate in the article for cancers and autism. As another example, around 30 genes appear to be involved in cardiomyopathies, but many individuals with the condition do not have mutations in any of those genes. By looking at interaction partners at the protein level of the 30 cardiomyopathy genes, we can start to identify new candidate genes based on the ‘cardiomyopathy network’, potentially leading to new molecular insights into the disease. It is our hope that InWeb_IM can contribute to interpreting clinical exome sequencing data and play a part in enabling clinical action in patients with an unknown cause of disease.

Intomics’ Scientific Director Rasmus Wernersson elaborates:

With InBio Map™ as a pivotal resource, we have helped pharmaceutical companies increase the outcome of target discovery efforts by 200%. Additionally, we have developed personalized medicine approaches that, based on genetic data, could predict responding patients in clinical trials with 91% accuracy, thus paving the way for tomorrow’s medicines. This is in perfect agreement with Intomics vision.