HAMBURG, Germany - Lion Bioscience AG and Paradigm Genetics Inc. are planning to form a strategic alliance in genomics-based data management and analysis. In addition, Lion will acquire a $2 million equity interest in Paradigm.

Lion, of Heidelberg, Germany, is a leading company in the area of life science research information management. The company has more than 190 employees, and has established numerous alliances in informatics and genomics with leading pharma companies, including Aventis, Bayer and Pharmacia & Upjohn. Paradigm is among the leaders in gene function determination in the field of plant genomics. The company recently signed a major deal with Monsanto Co. and is planning to file soon for an initial public offering on Nasdaq.

The companies already had a relationship since Paradigm, of Research Triangle Park, N.C., acquired a commercial license for Lion's proprietary SRS 6 software. SRS 6 provides researchers with a single interface to hundreds of scientific databases, allowing users to simultaneously search public, in-house and in-licensed databases.

The software allows researchers to process and manipulate their results at will, such as launching sequence analysis and homology search applications. "We use SRS as a tool for the integration and delivery of large volumes of public and proprietary data," said Ted Slater, director of bioinformatics at Paradigm. "We were able to integrate our core in-house database, Ag-DB, into the SRS 6 system within three weeks of installation."

Paradigm's Ag-DB database is a proprietary relational database system for plant functional genomics that integrates gene discovery, gene function determination and gene use identification.

The alliance will focus on the development of informatics tools for metabolic profiling. "Paradigm is generating a really huge amount of data on plant genes, expression profiles, metabolism, etc.," Friedrich von Bohlen, CEO of Lion, told BioWorld International. "Using our information biology solutions, it will be possible to turn these data into intelligent information, tailor-made to the need of the customers. For the first time, it will be able to correlate a phenotype and an expression profile."

"The objective," he said, "is to predict the changes of biochemical pathways in plants and fungi. To achieve this we will combine our data-mining and knowledge management tools, and Paradigm's high-throughput gene function determination technologies. In addition, we will develop phenotypic analysis tools to analyze and predict gene function. As a result, we expect to create the most advanced system for the identification and delivery of important targets, which will be useful in genomics in general."

Von Bohlen said he expects Paradigm will soon become the leading provider of agrobiotech genomic information. "Therefore we decided to acquire a $2 million equity position, one of the first participations of a German biotech company in a U.S. company not yet listed."

Other financial details were not disclosed. However, he said, revenues were distributed within the alliance depending on the input. "Patents will be granted to the partner that has the core competence in the respective field."

"This alliance is expected to create what we believe will be the agro-industry standard for genomics-based data management and analysis for crop production, nutrition and human health," said John Ryals, CEO and president of Paradigm. "It will allow Paradigm to focus its informatics resources on strategic gene function determination issues, while enhancing our ability to deliver exceptional customer interfaces."

Ryals said Paradigm was not restricting its activities to plant breeding, but would develop more efficacious and environmentally friendly plant nutrition products as well as discover novel antimicrobial compounds for human use.