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"Hidden complex networks govern everything from human diseases tofinancial markets and the internet, making reliable predictions impossible,"said Colin Hill, President and CEO of GNS and Chairman of the Board of Fina:"It is only today that terabytes of data, on-demand supercomputing, andnext-generation artificial intelligence software have converged to enable theuncovering of such networks, and prediction of their behavior, such aspredicting how a combination of two cancer drugs would affect the size of atumor in a cancer patient with a particular DNA sequence."
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GNS, who developed their proprietary REFS(TM) technology over the pasteight years, uses supercomputers to rapidly accelerate the processing of rawdata into meaningful biomedical outcomes. To date, this REFS(TM) software hasbeen used to probe and analyze how genes and proteins interconnect in acomplex web with the goal of developing better drugs. Today, GNS has launchedFina Technolgies (http://www.finatechnologies.com) to monetize their REFS(TM)technology in the e-commerce and financial trading markets, while remainingfocused on their original drug development mission.
Fina Technologies has obtained from GNS an exclusive license to certainnon-biological applications of REFS(TM), such as quantitative finance,e-commerce, insurance, and fraud detection. "Fina will use REFS(TM) to createquantitative trading algorithms and deliver business solutions for a new classof data intensive problems," said Josh Holden, CEO of Fina. "After spending13 years trading on Wall Street, this is the first tool I've seen thatautomates the discovery of complex and evolving relationships from massiveamounts of data, leading to more reliable and more profitable tradingstrategies."
Fina Technologies is supported in their efforts through an initial roundof investment led by Reed Elsevier Ventures, the venture arm of themultibillion dollar Anglo-Dutch media conglomerate Reed Elsevier, owner ofsuch assets as Lexis-Nexis, and by a Board of Directors steeped in finance ande-commerce. In addition to Colin Hill, Co-founder and President and CEO ofGNS, the Board of Fina includes Bill Trenchard, founder of Jump Networks, astart-up company that developed the world's first online calendaring system,which was sold to Microsoft for $50 million in 1999, and who is a currentBoard member of LiveOps, another company he founded. Also on the Board ofFina are Kevin Brown, Partner at Reed Elsevier Ventures; and Robert Maroney,Investment Manager at Connecticut Investments, LLC.
About REFS(TM)
Reverse Engineering/Forward Simulation (REFS(TM)) is a technology thatsystematically turns multiple layers of data into an unprecedented view ofcomplex systems as a "whole," without requiring previous knowledge of thestructure of the system. REFS(TM) begins with raw data and rapidly performsbillions upon billions of calculations using supercomputers to determine howthe individual components in the system interact with one another (ReverseEngineering). These computer-assembled models are then simulated usingbillions of in silico queries (Forward Simulation) to discover thehighest-impact components and to predict outcomes for previously unseenscenarios.
About Gene Network Sciences
Founded in 2000, Gene Network Sciences (http://www.gnsbiotech.com) is aleader in biosimulation with its ability to derive molecular mechanisms ofdrugs and diseases directly from molecular profiling and clinical data withoutany a priori knowledge. Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, GNS usesits REFS(TM) (reverse engineering and forward simulation) technology inpharmaceutical and clinical settings to rapidly turn complex and heterogeneousdata sets into cell and organ-level computer models of disease biology, drugefficacy and drug safety. These models simulate mechanisms of disease and theclinical performance of drug candidates. By discovering how and why specificdrug candidates impact human biology, GNS technology enables the rapiddevelopment of breakthrough drug and diagnostic products.Contact: Lynn Blenkhorn Thomas Neyarapally Feinstein Kean Healthcare Gene Network Sciences (508) 851-0930 (617) 494-0492 [email protected] [email protected]
SOURCE Gene Network Sciences, Inc.
