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 Berg, based in Boston, was co-founded in 2006 by Silicon Valley real
estate billionaire Carl Berg. Since then, it has been working to
change the way drugs are discovered, working in partnership with key
players such as the U.S. Department of Defense and the Parkinson's
Institute Clinical Center.
Its newest agreement is with the Genomics England 100,000 Genomes
Project, which aims to accelerate development of new diagnostics and
treatments through a year-long industry trial, company executives
told Reuters.
The project focuses on patients with rare diseases and six common
cancers. Industry partners include drugmakers such as Roche, Biogen,
AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline.
Berg uses artificial intelligence "to look at patterns in the data
to find areas in the biology that are fingerprints of that disease,"
Niven Narain, Berg’s co-founder and president, said in an interview.
It plans to open a UK office in the next year to shepherd the
project and seek new collaborations with drug company and academic
partners in Europe.
Leading biotech companies are collecting genomic information on
hundreds of thousands of patients to search for new drug leads.
Berg says its approach allows it to add far more data points in
addition to DNA. The company uses its artificial intelligence
supercomputer platform - known to insiders as 'Betsy' - to look at
what is going on inside cells, studying all the proteins, the lipids
that form cell membranes and govern cell communication and the way
cells metabolize energy.
Since last April, it has worked with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical
Center and the Pancreatic Cancer Research Team to hunt for leads on
pancreatic cancer by analyzing blood samples from nearly 1,900
patients.
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"The Berg approach essentially does away with the assumption that
genes, by themselves, are responsible for disease or the absence of
it," said Dr. James Moser of Beth Israel Deaconess.
Berg is also planning Phase 2 trials in early 2016 for its
experimental cancer drug called BPM 31510 aimed at treating solid
tumors, Narain said. The treatment works by reversing changes in the
metabolism of cancer cells that allow them to thrive.
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 used
alone, and increases the potency of chemotherapy when used in
combination.
"We're seeing responses in gastric cancer, esophageal cancer,
pancreatic cancer, liver cancer, renal cell sarcomas" - all highly
metabolic tumors, Narain said.
(Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen; Editing by Alan Crosby)
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