Aridhia Informatics, a healthcare informatics company based in Glasgow, Scotland, has formed a strategic partnership with US company Glencoe Software to create support tools for the development of personalized medicine using real-world clinical, genetic and research data, according to PharmaTimes.

Aridhia will make an unspecified “major investment” in Seattle-based Glencoe as part of the alliance, which combines the Scottish company’s specialist capabilities in accessing, storing and analyzing healthcare information with Glencoe’s expertise in managing, sharing and publishing large scientific datasets generated in laboratories worldwide.

Both companies are start-ups based on technology and knowledge developed at the University of Dundee in Scotland. Aridhia Informatics is a joint venture between the University of Dundee, NHS Tayside and IT analytics company Sumerian. Glencoe is a member of the Open Microscopy Environment (OME) consortium, which builds and releases software tools for the analysis particularly large scientific-image datasets.

Professor Andrew Morris, director of the Medical Research Institute at the University of Dundee and co-founder of Aridhia Informatics, said the aim of the partnership was to “become a world leader in providing the clinical and scientific information required for the personalized, targeted drugs and treatments of the future.”

The UK was well suited to this task, given the opportunities available for open innovation between National Healthy Service, academic and commercial partners, Professor Morris added. 

Aridhia chairman Dr. David Sibbald underlined the translational benefits of teaming with Glencoe, saying the partnership would “act as an accelerator to link the laboratory to the clinic.”