30
BioTOPics 44 | May 2012
BioTOP-Report
Health-IT
New Opportunities for Biotechnology on the
Interface between Life Sciences and IT
Berlin-Brandenburg is not only one of Europe’s most attractive life sciences and healthcare locations, but also a
leading centre of the IT industry. That combination offers optimal conditions for the development of innovative
health IT solutions for the regional and global market. To bring together the know-how of the different sectors
involved and promote even stronger networking between the players in the region, TSB Innovationsagentur
Berlin organised a workshop on “Health IT Solutions for the Healthcare Industries of the Future” in cooperation
with SAP and the Hasso Plattner Institute in late November 2011
1
.
The participants, representing science and industry, jointly devel-
oped interdisciplinary scenarios of what regional model projects
for innovative IT-supported healthcare may be seen by 2020.
Several ideas from the workshop were adopted and are to be de-
veloped in working groups in the years ahead.
Health IT comprises a broad range of applications, including tele-
medicine and solutions for process optimisation in hospitals as
well as technologies for handling large data volumes along the
entire value chain from research to patient therapy and care. Be-
low we present some examples of projects in the Berlin region
to illustrate what is happening on the interface between life sci-
ences and IT.
IT Future of Medicine (ITFoM) –
Berlin heads a European flagship project
Modern biotechnology and today’s increasingly personalised
medicine require a huge amount of fundamental data. That will
present the IT sector with unprecedented challenges regarding
hardware, software, memory and communication systems. To
meet these new tasks in the clinical, technological and ICT-based
environment, 60 mainly European institutions and companies
have joined forces in the initiative “IT Future of Medicine” which
is being coordinated by the Max Planck Institute for Molecular
Genetics in Berlin. ITFoM will develop computer models by which
personalised “virtual patients” will be derived from the molecular,
physiological, anatomic and environmental data of every individ-
ual patient. The aim is to develop individually optimised preven-
tion and therapy concepts and minimise the potential side-effects
of therapies (more information: www.itfom.eu).
Using bioinformatics to develop a better
understanding of life
Bioinformatics is indispensable to catalogue, analyse and inter-
pret the huge data volumes in medical research, genomics and
systems biology. Many questions can simply not be answered
without innovative computer programmes and mathematical
methods. “Treffpunkt Bioinformatik” is a leading expert forum
in this field. It is organised jointly every year by the Max Planck
Institute for Molecular Genetics and BioTOP Berlin-Brandenburg
in the German Capital Region. Its eighth meeting in September
2011 was attended by experts from Germany and the United
States and devoted to “Bioinformatics and Evolution Biology“.
1
Documentation of the workshop for downloading at www.tsb-berlin.de/health-it
Prof. Dr. Hans Lehrach
Director of the Max Planck Institute for
Molecular Genetics
Medicine will in future be based on the ever larger volumes
of available patient data. A small arithmetical example: At the
MPIMG we need 12 hours of computing performance to simu-
late a tumour based on our cancer model which demonstrates
the interaction of about 4000 cell components. In the case of
a fully virtual patient, we would be talking about more than
1000 different cell types, each with 1000 different conditions!
This can be done only with smaller chips, optimised data flows
and smarter algorithms which increase the available comput-
ing capacity!
31
BioTOPics 44 | May 2012
Health-IT
BioTOP-Report
One of the themes addressed was how bioinformatics supports
evolution biologists in reconstructing the emergence of present-
day organisms and decoding the evolution processes involved.
By sequencing the genomes of many species and analysing them
applying IT-supported methods, scientists are working on the
reconstruction of phylogenesis and thereby developing a better
understanding of life.
A mobile application for personalised cancer therapy
from Berlin-Brandenburg
In the context of a joint research initiative, Charité – Univer-
sitätsmedizin Berlin, together with the SAP Innovation Center
and the Hasso Plattner Institute in Potsdam developed a new
data management technology for the research and therapy of
cancer within only seven months. The HANA Oncolyzer is based
on the in-memory technology co-developed at the Hasso Plattner
Institute which permits accessing all relevant patient and clinical
data in realtime and supplementing them at any time. Using the
mobile end user device, this can be done directly from the pa-
tient bed. Cancer therapies can therefore now be adjusted more
specifically and more quickly to each patient and cancer type, so
that the chances of healing improve considerably. In addition,
this technology also makes the work of researchers far less oner-
ous. For example in gene sequencing where terabyte volumes of
raw data per patient are generated, the HANA Oncolyzer helps
analyse them as to their relevance and select them accordingly.
The HANA Oncolyzer was presented to a broad expert audience
at CeBIT in spring 2012. Productive operation is scheduled to
begin this year.
Figures: Analytical view of HANA Oncolyzer (Source: SAP AG)
Cafer Tosun
Managing Director
SAP Innovation Center
With the HANA Oncolyzer, SAP is also to some extent embark-
ing into new territories beyond the field of “classical” SAP
applications. This mobile application is helping oncology move
towards personalised cancer therapy by providing a solution
that can cope with the enormous flood of data and informa-
tion. Until now, doctors wanting to use a promising person-
alised therapy need to research files and other documents for
up to two days to find the patient whose features are suited
for precisely that treatment. Using in-memory technology per
iPad, this can now be done in just seconds. At the same time,
the joint project HANA Oncolyzer with the Charité and HPI
is a perfect example of how we at the SAP Innovation Center
operate. We work directly with users because they are most
familiar with the challenges in their field and with research
facilities with a high international reputation like the HPI. In
Berlin-Brandenburg we have exactly the kind of network that
brings together leading experts like these. The HANA Onco-
lyzer demonstrates very impressively how fast such an initia-
tive can deliver excellent results.