Gene Network Sciences (GNS) has recently been awarded a Phase II Small Business Innovation Research Grant (SBIR) from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The three-year, $1.6 million grant will be used to further develop VisualHeart, the company's cardiac modeling software platform.

Dr. Charles Antzelevitch and his Experimental Cardiology team at the Masonic Medical Research Laboratory (MMRL), located in Utica, NY, are collaborators in the grant proposal. Central to the GNS methodology is the combination of experimental data and computational methods. The MMRL together with Cornell University will provide the experimental data necessary to validate the computer software, known as VisualHeart, developed by GNS.

By quantifying a drug's effect on ion channels, action potential and electrocardiogram (ECG) data provided by the MMRL and Cornell, GNS hopes to be able to generate pro-arrhythmic markers. The cardiac modeling software will then incorporate the research data on a drug's effect at the molecular/ion channel level into a computer/mathematical simulation of cardiac electrical activity to determine pro-arrhythmic markers and mechanism of action. The technology is designed to improve risk assessment of new drug candidates in clinical trials by simulating a drug's effect on the ECG, including the long QT index.

Founded in 1958, the MMRL is an internationally renowned medical research institute dedicated to studies of the electrical activity of the heart and the mechanisms responsible for abnormal rhythms of the heart, known as cardiac arrhythmias. In recent years, the MMRL has also become a central hub for genetic screening of inherited arrhythmic diseases in the United States. MMRL scientists have uncovered the mechanisms responsible for many forms of life-threatening cardiac arrhythmias as well as the mechanisms by which some drugs act to precipitate arrhythmias. In recent years, they have delineated the genetic basis for several sudden cardiac death syndromes that take the lives of infants, children and adults and have been successful in the development of innovative treatments for these and other medical afflictions. Prominent among their most recent achievements is the identification of a novel strategy for the pharmacologic treatment of atrial fibrillation, one of the greatest unmet medical needs facing our society.