Poolbeg Pharma PLC (AIM:POLB) said it teamed up with testing and support specialist, Eurofins Genomics, to complete next-generation RNA sequencing of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) disease progression samples from human viral challenge studies.
The move is a ‘key step’ to commencing artificial intelligence (AI) analysis of its data and will mean the pharma company has full immunological datasets for RSV, as well as influenza, which are ready to use with AI platforms to identify drug targets and products for influenza and RSV indications.
RSV affects the respiratory tract of children and at-risk older adults. In severe cases, it can cause pneumonia and life-threatening breathing difficulties.
The project with Eurofins is expected to be completed by the end of 2021.
Poolbeg chief executive Jeremy Skillington said: "This is an exciting step in our AI data analysis programme.
“The deep genetic analysis of RSV progression will be key information to feed into AI drug and target discovery tools.
“We already have similar data for influenza so we will now have complete discovery datasets for both influenza and RSV.
“Our AI analysis will be breaking new ground in data-driven drug discovery as it will be the first time that human challenge trial immune data is used in this way.
“Having the sequencing specially tailored to work with AI platforms will enable us to discover potential new drug candidates for both diseases in a quicker and more cost-effective way."