25. Oktober 2022 Evotec enters partnership with Hannover Medical School

The strategic partnership between Evotec and MHH aims at achieving a better disease understanding of SjS and SLE by creating a unique longitudinal PanOmics database from the analysis of patient material. Biospecimens from several hundred SjS and SLE patients will be collected by MHH and analysed on Evotec’s PanOmics platform, which includes genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics as well as single-cell sequencing technologies. Together with supplementary pseudonymised patient data, these PanOmics data will feed into Evotec’s proprietary translational molecular patient data platform E.MPD, which serves as the central data repository for molecular patient data.

For academic research, MHH will receive access to the data generated within the partnership by working with Evotec’s AI-driven analytics software PanHunter. Evotec has the exclusive right to exploit the data commercially with its unique capabilities in the field of data-driven precision medicine. No financial terms of the collaboration were disclosed.

Dr Cord Dohrmann, Chief Scientific Officer of Evotec, commented: “We are excited to enter this partnership with MHH and expand Evotec’s E.MPD database into autoimmune diseases. The conventional symptomatic description of many diseases stands in the way of both diagnosis and effective treatment. By leveraging PanOmics data, we are taking a deeper dive into underlying disease mechanisms. A better understanding of molecular disease mechanisms guides the identification of key disease drivers and ultimately supports the identification of new targets and the development of effective medicine.”

Prof. Dr Torsten Witte, Professor of Rheumatology and Head of the Department of Rheumatology and Immunology at MHH, added: “So far, there are no efficacious anti-inflammatory therapies for Sjögren’s syndrome and only few for SLE. The identification of inflammatory pathways contributing to the pathogenesis of the disorders would help to establish novel therapies. Since these pathways may differ interindividually, the research project by MHH and Evotec may even pave the road to individualised treatments of Sjögren’s syndrome and SLE. We are therefore excited about the possibilities of the collaboration that combines the expertise of the partners from MHH in the exact clinical characterisation of the patients and from Evotec in the application of multi-omics technologies.”