ORION BIONETWORKS 

ACCELERATING THE SEARCH FOR BRAIN DISORDER CURES

Our Mission

Our mission is to harness the power of computer modeling and shared data to predict the course of brain disorders and accelerate the search for cures.

Operating Model

Orion Bionetworks comprises an evolving and growing community of collaborators drawn from industry, academia, government, and patient advocacy.

• Systems biology modeling partners provide technology and software capable of integrating diverse types of data and building predictive disease simulations
• Advocacy and patient portal partners directly engage patients to help define research goals and gain access to real-time, real-world disease and environment data
• Healthcare partners conduct long-term patient clinical studies, contribute data from imaging and biomarker repositories (e.g., gene activity, proteins in the blood), and provide disease expertise
• Healthcare information technology (IT) partners provide data management and IT support to manage high data volumes
• Government partners contribute grant funding, and participate in standards development and dissemination of disease models
• Pharmaceutical and biotechnology partners provide funding, clinical trial and biomarker data and development expertise

Who We Are

Orion Bionetworks leads a cooperative alliance of academic, industry, government and patient advocacy partners dedicated to transforming the discovery of new diagnostics, treatments and cures for brain disease by harnessing the power of Big Data & Predictive Modeling.

We are at a unique crossroads in history (the Information Age) where the promise of computer technology is intersecting with advanced medical technologies that can capture diverse biological information, from gene activity and brain function to the presence of telltale proteins in the blood. Combining powerful computing with this wealth of information can help us understand the complex biology that underlies most brain disorders. Our initiative starts with rich data. Our healthcare partners conduct studies that collect broad and deep biological and patient data from people with brain disorders over time. In parallel, our patient community partners use online platforms to gather complementary data on the impact of the disease on patients in the real world and in real time. Through powerful computer programs, we can take what was once a fragmented picture of disease—many different types of data studied separately—and begin to explore how everything fits together. Then we use these programs to build predictive models, or simulations, of brain disorders such as multiple sclerosis (MS).

 These simulations will create a more complete picture of brain disorders (see above) and help predict the course of disease in individual people. Our goal is to build a community that uses predictive models to improve patient care and develop new ways to prevent, treat, and potentially cure brain disorders.

The community—a true bionetwork—of cooperative alliance partners from many disciplines will:

• Contribute unique capabilities, data or insights
• Gain access to a powerful data-sharing and information technology platform
• Generate open-access models of brain disease

Together, we will support a new research model that will increase overall understanding of brain disorders while allowing partners to advance their own business and research goals.