Medidata, Project ALS Form Research Alliance

NEW YORK — Medidata, a developer of life science data management and analysis software, said on Friday that it has partnered with non-profit Project ALS to study amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) using the company's machine learning-based Rave Omics biomarker discovery platform.

According to Medidata, Rave Omics is designed to capture and analyze genomic, proteomic, transcriptomic and other omic data during clinical studies in order to identify biomarkers that can be used for patient stratification. Rave Omics is managed by Medidata subsidiary Acorn AI.

Additional terms of the alliance were not disclosed.

"ALS is a complex, heterogeneous disease, and treatment of its various forms may require specific therapies targeting distinct ALS subtypes," Neil Shneider, Columbia University investigator and Project ALS research advisory board member, said in a statement. "I'm eager to begin working with Medidata's Acorn AI team to define these subtypes, and to develop a precision medicine approach to our treatment of ALS."

In mid-2019, New York City-based Medidata was acquired by France's Dassault Systèmes for $5.8 billion in cash.