Pistoia Alliance partners with Eagle Genomics, Cycle Computing

NEW YORK—Eagle Genomics and Cycle Computing announced lastmonth that they have jointly won a competitive bid by the Pistoia Alliance to supportthe development of a proof-of-concept system "to meet the future needs ofpharmaceutical R&D IT."

A four-month project, the Eagle Genomics & CycleComputing proof-of-concept system is one of three proposals accepted out of afield of 11 total submissions. A commercial release of the Sequencing AnalysisPlatform is expected by mid-2012.

The Pistoia Alliance, a global, not-for-profit,precompetitive alliance of life-science companies, vendors, publishers andacademic groups says it has "a vision for the future of managing and sharingprecompetitive pharmaceutical genomics R&D data," The alliance has createddetailed requirements under the banner of Sequence Services Phase 2. Thesystem, with a number of add-ons for analyzing this data through the use ofstandard bioinformatics tools and custom workflows, must ensure that eachcustomer using it is completely confident that their data will remain privateand confidential.

The partnership builds on Cycle Computing's extensiveexperience in securing and scaling large-data applications in the cloud andEagle Genomics' track record in delivering bioinformatics applications andworkflows to eight out of 10 top global pharmaceutical companies. According tothe companies, the project is on track to be a "robust, scalable, and highlyadaptable solution that meets the vast majority of current Pistoia memberneeds, plus many of their future ones."

"The Pistoia Alliance's vision in recognizing thesignificance of disruptive technologies and associated new business modelspresents a superb showcase for the talents of Cycle Computing and EagleGenomics to provide open innovation solutions to customers in thepharmaceutical sector—and beyond," said David Flanders, CEO of Eagle Genomics,in a statement.

"Cycle is committed to supporting the standards that helpspark innovation, unify silos and streamline data digestion," added JasonStowe, CEO of Cycle Computing. "We look forward to collaborating with thealliance members and with the talent of Eagle Genomics in bioinformatics andCycle Computing in Cloud HPC workflow management, meet the challenges facingboth researchers today and into the next generation."