Dr. Leo Kim, Chief Technical Officer at Akkadix, said that the grant will support a research and software development program under the direction of principal investigator Arcady Mushegian, Ph.D. It will be based on annotation strategies aimed at improving the accuracy of methods used to analyze information on protein function.

"Several large scale sequencing projects have produced an explosion of data, but previous automated methods of processing and organizing information contained in these databases have not achieved the level of accuracy required to reliably predict protein function," Kim said. "A Phase I study employing the methods Dr. Mushegian's team is pursuing has resulted in an error rate of less than 5%, as compared to error rates as high as 25% with some other methods.

Kim said that Akkadix is conducting beta tests of high throughput software developed around refined annotation strategies employed in the Phase I study.

"Understanding and being able to accurately predict the function of proteins is at the heart of applications of biotechnology in developing new drugs, industrial enzymes and genetically enhanced plants," Kim said. "This grant recognizes the promise our research holds for advancing this critical area of science."