Our Vision

We will establish a profitable position by providing to our costumers high quality products that combine our advances on genomics, bioinformatics, and nanotechnology. Our portfolio of research products includes:

A. Genomic Signatures and Barcodes

Phylogenetic and molecular analyses of viral diseases have provided clues about their evolutionary process and a better understanding of their pathogenesis, dispersal patterns, and geographical distribution. The lethality, short replication times, and high mutation rates of these pathogens have limited the understanding of which regions of the viral genome are most useful for taxonomic and therapeutic purposes. At this point, there is not a single diagnostic device that can associate changes in specific viral genomic regions with adaptation characteristics, lethality, and drug resistance; or determine if viruses are endemic, natural, or engineered.

Orion Integrated Biosciences Inc. has developed new genome analysis algorithms and performed a systematic survey of all nucleic acid sequence information available for encephalic and hemorrhagic viruses and influenza. We have identified sets of viral segments with two main functional characteristics. First, each segment is ultra-specific to a viral specie or strain (with false positive rate of less than 1 in a billion). Second, each fragment is systematically eliminated when the adaptation to a new host occurs or when new natural pathogenic patterns change. By integrating different sources of genomic information we have built a genomic viral catalog that contains the molecular patterns of all know viruses. Thus, we can differentiate viruses by family, genus, serogroup, specie, strain, and disease severity. In addition, we have been able to generate possible polymorphisms that are likely to occur in nature. This information provides the basis for the development of new detection devices, conventional therapeutics (vaccine development, discovery of antiviral compounds, peptide binding, RNAi) and unconventional technologies such as synthetic self-replicating non infectious miniviruses.

B. Rational Antiviral Development

There has been tremendous innovation in the methods used to derive new chemical compounds; however, these efforts have made little impact in the development of antivirals. Despite the increased capability for drug identification and synthesis, in 1990 there were just five licensed antiviral drugs, today; there are more than forty. Most of these drugs are for treatment of HIV, influenza, hepatitis, and herpes viruses. Unfortunately, the burst in therapeutic antivirals has not resulted in a long term trend in drug development. In 2002, out of 89 new drugs, no new antibiotics were approved. In 2004, of 506 drugs in development, only five were new antibiotics and none were antiviral. In fact, recent studies show that despite widespread resistance and dramatic progress in genomics and computational biology, antiviral development efforts are declining worldwide. Despite the importance in public health, the development of therapeutic countermeasures against encephalic and hemorrhagic diseases and influenza has been neglected by the pharmaceutical industry in favor of drugs to treat chronic conditions.

Using the genomic signatures of different viral genomes, our corporation is identifying small-molecule that are likely to act as antivirals by interacting and blocking genomic signatures involved in the viral replication, assembly and/or budding. Compared with other efforts, Orion Integrated Biosciences Inc. drug discovery efforts have several advantages: 1) Specific segments of the viral genome (genomic signatures) provide a viable and highly cost-effective strategy circumventing the need for random screening, robotics, excessive reagent acquisition, or compound storage facilities. 2) The uniqueness of each genomic signature makes the selection of chemical compounds ideal candidates with reduced negative side effects in the host cells. 3) The antiviral agents identified on the basis of highly conserved genomic signatures represent a greater barrier to resistance to the chemical compound. This will prolong considerably the useful lifetime of the therapeutic products.

C. Discovery of Malaria Invasion Pathways

The World Health Organization estimated that annually, malaria kills more than 1.5 million people including one African child every 30 seconds. Despite massive efforts to eradicate the disease in the 1950s and early 1960s, more people are infected with malaria today than at any other time in history. In collaboration with researchers at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR), Orion Integrated Biosciences Inc. is using functional genomic technologies and computational tools to understand the infection mechanisms of different malaria isolates. This data is used to build in silico infection models and transcriptional networks that lead to the identification of vaccines candidates and drug targets against this important disease.