The Interrogative Biology platform uses artificial intelligence and algorithms to establish linkages among multiple data sets that include not only genomes, but also proteomes, metabolomes and lipidomes. The platform compares these ‘omes among cells in a healthy as well as a diseased states in the hopes of identifying the outliers that represent the signatures of Parkinson’s disease processes in cells. The result of running the Parkinson’s Institute’s extensive assortment of tissues and cell lines through the Interrogative Biology platform will be a massive collection of new data, which may hold the key—or at least a good clue—to understanding and ultimately treating a disease that has so far remained enigmatic and unyielding.  

 

“The greatest success we can hope for through this process is to open a window to the cell that will allow us to some day diagnose and treat Parkinson’s disease before physical symptoms manifest,” Taylor says.  

 

Aside from sharing mutual interest in unlocking Parkinson’s disease, this collaboration was facilitated by the personal acquaintance between Berg Pharma’s founder, Carl Berg, and the Parkinson’s Institute’s founder and Parkinson’s research pioneer, Dr. William Langston. Berg is also a prominent member of the Silicon Valley community where the Parkinson’s Institute is located. The two have long discussed areas of potential collaboration, and now appear to have found a project that brings both organizations’ strengths and expertise to bear.  

 

Both groups find a degree of freedom in the fact that neither is federally funded, allowing them to collaborate more liberally and with fewer restrictions. The Parkinson’s Institute credits the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine for a substantial portion of its funding.  

 

“We are two like-minded institutions intensely focused of finding key factors in the disease’s pathophysiology,” says Narain.   “Being nimble, entrepreneurial and innovative are the keys to unlocking this disease,” adds Taylor.