deCODE genetics and IBM announced a strategic alliance to deliver a set of integrated applications, technologies, and services for analyzing, managing and storing genetic, genealogical and clinical data.

Under the three-year agreement, deCODE genetics and IBM will jointly market and sell deCODE's Clinical Genome Miner (CGM) Discovery system running on IBM hardware and software.The deCODE and IBM solution will be available globally to pharmaceutical biotechnology firms, government-sponsored research organizations, research hospitals and medical care facilities beginning midyear.

The CGM Discovery system is a proven, statistically-based application for isolating and analyzing genes and gene variations associated with particular diseases.It is the same application that deCODE has used in its population genetics research in Iceland to isolate key genes and drug targets in nine common diseases.

The alliance advances information-based medicine -- the use of information technology to augment clinical information -- patient records, family histories, and lab tests, for example -- with knowledge about the human genome.By understanding illnesses on the molecular level, including gene variations linked to disease or drug response, doctors can make more precise diagnoses and tailor treatment decisions.Also, drug makers can develop more targeted treatment therapies and identify potential clinical trial participants more effectively.

"Through knowledge and technology transfer, this alliance could bring significant business value to drug companies that are under pressure to design better drugs and get them to the market faster," said Dr. Caroline Kovac, general manager, IBM Life Sciences."More importantly, by delivering on the promise of information-based medicine, the alliance has the potential to forever change the way medical care is delivered, with better predisposition and diagnostic assessments as well as targeted treatment solutions."

CGM Discovery users can in real time mine their datasets on phenotypes, genotypes and genealogies, all in the context of deCODE's annotated human and animal genome data.The CGM Discovery system also utilizes deCODE's proprietary Identity Protection System, which securely and automatically anonymizes clinical and genetic data.