Elsevier acquires Ariadne Genomics

AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands—Looking to combine theirofferings and "deliver better insights to research discovery and theunderstanding of disease mechanisms," global provider of scientific, technical,and medical information products and services Elsevier has acquired thebusiness assets of Rockville, Md.-based Ariadne Genomics, a provider of pathwayanalysis tools and semantic technologies for life science researchers.

Terms and financial details of the transaction werenot released. Ariadne will be integrated with Elsevier's Corporate Marketsdivision.

"Ariadne Genomics' pathway analysis tools andsemantic technologies integrate research findings from across multiple contentsources providing a deeper understanding of biological pathways and diseaseprogression," said Alexander van Boetzelaer, managing director of ElsevierCorporate Markets. "Ariadne's products improve research productivity andoutcomes for life science researchers by delivering new insights for potentialinterventions, therapies and cures."

"Ariadne brings to Elsevier an informationoffering in the biology domain and a passionate and dedicated team of lifescience professionals," he continued. "Ariadne's team and offerings are apowerful complement to our chemistry, pre-clinical and clinical workflowsolutions."

As Elsevier notes, Ariadne's flagship product,Pathway Studio, is widely used by pharmaceutical, agriculture and academicinstitutions to provide analyses of molecular pathways and disease progression.The integrated data mining and visualization product organizes relevant factsand relationships from large document collections of genes, proteins, cellprocesses and diseases. Powered by Ariadne's MedScan technology, the Pathwaytools enable visualization of biological relationships spanning biomedicalliterature and supports the interpretation of experimental results utilizingdomain-specific ontologies, taxonomies and dictionaries.

With our integration into Elsevier, we lookforward to strengthening our ability to serve biological researchers inscientific communities through further development of Pathway Studio, fortifiedwith Elsevier's content, and complementing Elsevier's leadership role acrossbiomedical disciplines," noted Ariadne's CEO, Ilya Mazo, of the acquisition.

"As a customer of both providers, I am excited tolearn that Ariadne Genomics and Elsevier have joined," said Dr. Jonathan Usuka,director of global business planning at Celgene, a multinational biopharmaceuticalcompany. "Pathway Studio provides essential support to our immunologicalstudies. As part of Elsevier, there is the potential to deliver even more valueto our researchers."