Elsevier Acquires Ariadne Genomics, Provider of Pathway Analysis Tools and Semantic Technologies for Life Science Researchers

AMSTERDAM, December 8, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

Combined Elsevier and Ariadne offerings will deliver better insights to research discovery and the understanding of disease mechanisms

Elsevier, a world-leading provider of scientific, technical, and medical information products and services, announced today the acquisition of the business assets of Ariadne Genomics, a provider of pathway analysis tools and semantic technologies for life science researchers. Ariadne will be integrated with Elsevier's Corporate Markets division.

"Ariadne Genomics' pathway analysis tools and semantic technologies integrate research findings from across multiple content sources providing a deeper understanding of biological pathways and disease progression. Ariadne's products improve research productivity and outcomes for life science researchers by delivering new insights for potential interventions, therapies and cures," said Alexander van Boetzelaer, Managing Director of Elsevier Corporate Markets. "Ariadne brings to Elsevier an information offering in the biology domain and a passionate and dedicated team of life science professionals. Ariadne's team and offerings are a powerful complement to our chemistry, pre-clinical and clinical workflow solutions."

Ariadne's flagship product Pathway Studio is widely used by pharmaceutical, agriculture and academic institutions to provide analyses of molecular pathways and disease progression. Pathway Studio is an integrated data mining and visualization solution that organizes relevant facts and relationships from large document collections of genes, proteins, cell processes and diseases. The tool, powered by Ariadne's MedScan® technology, enables visualization of biological relationships spanning biomedical literature and supports the interpretation of experimental results utilizing domain-specific ontologies, taxonomies and dictionaries.

"As a customer of both providers, I am excited to learn that Ariadne Genomics and Elsevier have joined," said Dr. Jonathan Usuka, Director of Global Business Planning at Celgene, a multinational biopharmaceutical company. "Pathway Studio provides essential support to our immunological studies. As part of Elsevier, there is the potential to deliver even more value to our researchers."

Ariadne's CEO, Ilya Mazo, said of the acquisition, "With our integration into Elsevier, we look forward to strengthening our ability to serve biological researchers in scientific communities through further development of Pathway Studio, fortified with Elsevier's content, and complementing Elsevier's leadership role across biomedical disciplines."

Ariadne is headquartered in Rockville, Maryland. Financial details of the acquisition are not being disclosed.

About Elsevier

Elsevier is a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services. The company works in partnership with the global science and health communities to publish more than 2,000 journals, including The Lancet and Cell, and close to 20,000 book titles, including major reference works from Mosby and Saunders. Elsevier's online solutions include SciVerse ScienceDirect, SciVerse Scopus, Reaxys, MD Consult and Nursing Consult, which enhance the productivity of science and health professionals, and the SciVal suite and MEDai's Pinpoint Review, which help research and health care institutions deliver better outcomes more cost-effectively.

A global business headquartered in Amsterdam, Elsevier employs 7,000 people worldwide. The company is part of Reed Elsevier Group PLC, a world-leading publisher and information provider, which is jointly owned by Reed Elsevier PLC and Reed Elsevier NV. The ticker symbols are REN (Euronext Amsterdam), REL (London Stock Exchange), RUK and ENL (New York Stock Exchange).

About Ariadne

Ariadne (http://www.ariadnegenomics.com), a leader in research data products and knowledge enrichment-based software solutions, helps pharmaceutical and life science researchers tap known scientific knowledge for applications in systems biology and translational medicine. We provide a portfolio of solutions for life science, drug discovery and development applications including custom data products, knowledge extraction and visualization software, knowledge reports, and informatics staffing.

Pathway Studio, built and powered by MedScan® technology, is integrated data mining and visualization software that allows organizations and researchers to rapidly extract relevant facts and relationships from large document collections (text-mining), visualize these facts in a biological context, and integrate and interpret OMICS experimental data. The extracted knowledge is used for defining and testing in silico-based hypotheses across a wide range of disciplines including mechanistic modeling of disease, drug action and toxicity, as well as biomarker discovery, cellular and network pathway building, protein-protein interactions and many more.

Pathway Studio is available in desktop and enterprise versions along with domain specific knowledge bases and cartridges. For more information, go to http://www.ariadnegenomics.com.

Media contact
Tom Reller
Vice President of Global Relations, Elsevier
+ 1-215-239-3508
t.reller@elsevier.com