SimOmics wins its first major contract.
SimOmics, a healthcare IT spin-out of York University, has won its first major contract courtesy of a consortium led by York’s Centre for Immunology and Infection. The spin-out will help find a cure for a disease spread by sand fly bites.
SimOmics has developed a computer modelling software which is able to extrapolate how a drug affects diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, type one diabetes, and multiple sclerosis.
The contract with the Centre for Immunology and Infection follows the centre’s £1m ($1.6m) commitment to finding a cure for leishmaniasis. The disease affects some 12 million people across the world, and leads to about 20 to 50 deaths a year. It can present itself in three distinct forms: skin ulcers, or skin, mouth and nose ulcers, or skin ulcers and fever, low count of red blood cells, enlarged liver and spleen.
SimOmics will receive part of the £1m commitment – how much exactly has not been disclosed – to use its modelling software to virtually trial treatments and vaccines against the disease and significantly reduce the need for rodents.
Jon Timmis, founder of SimOmics, said: “SimOmics is an exciting development for the Yorkshire region and demonstrates how research at York can have a direct impact on society as a whole. In the long-term our software will result in a more efficient drug pipeline, which will allow drug manufacturers to get drugs out to the people who need them more quickly and cheaply.”
