HAMBURG, Germany - Only days after entering a strategic alliance with Paradigm Genetics, Lion Biosciences AG signed yet another cooperation agreement to extend its bioinformatics platform. Lion now has joined forces with cheminformatics specialist Tripos Inc. to close the gap between the worlds of chemical and biological data analysis.

"This is a perfect completion," Claus Kremoser, of Heidelberg-based Lion, told BioWorld International. "So far, our i-biology solution was able to integrate data generated by genetics, molecular biology, physiology and biochemistry. Now we can add features like the prediction of compounds that bind to the gene products and can test these compounds in silico."

Today, life science and chemistry data exist in thousands of databases in different formats around the world, and to retrieve the maximum value, researchers have to integrate publicly available data with data from subscription and internal databases. During the past years, Lion tried to develop intelligent software tools to navigate through these databases and to collect information and execute decisions automatically. Meanwhile, the software is able to analyze and classify novel gene sequences, to examine expression patterns and tissue distribution, to predict gene function, 3-D structure of products, and binding compounds, and to annotate known inhibitors.

Tripos, of St. Louis, will add its expertise in chemical informatics, such as creation of virtual combinatorial substance libraries, the virtual screening of compounds, and the identification and characterization of potential binding sites and binding affinities. In addition, Tripos recently acquired and integrated a small wet chemistry company.

The resulting "GenChem" software tool integrates all these data on one single information technology platform.

"That's what we call i-biology," Kremoser said. "It will help to understand the complex interactions among genes, metabolic pathways and drugs and will facilitate a close interaction between computer specialists and the experimental scientists at the bench. In the end, i-biology will allow the whole commercial research and development cycle of drugs - target validation, combinatorial chemistry, predictive pharmacology and toxicology - to be done through a combination of in silico and in vitro approaches. This will allow a much more rational and efficient research process. In the long run, we will develop solutions to enable the design of clinical trials that are more likely to succeed, too."

Speeding up the research and development cycle of new drugs is essential for cutting costs in the pharmaceutical industry, but ironically, the advance of science and knowledge has created a new bottleneck in pharma research and development: too many targets, too many pathways, too much data to chose from. Hence, data interpretation and retrieval of knowledge is critical for success.

"Our business model in bioinformatics is quite clear," Kremoser said. "First, we sell software licenses for our products such as SRS, bioScout or arrayScout. Then many clients ask for customization of the solution according to their special needs. And the third and most ambitious product is our i-biology concept, which for the first time we developed for Bayer. This concept of a company-wide solution to reorganize and rationalize the life science research process will be developed further to a system solution just like SAP in the business software area."

Lion and Tripos already have worked together for 18 months so prototypes of the new unified "GenChem" platform are already finished. Lion will purchase shares of Tripos worth $9 million, a stake of nearly 11 percent in Tripos if the shares were converted into common stock. Friedrich von Bohlen, CEO of Lion, will join Tripos' board.