The Critical Role of Bioinformatics in the Development of RNA Therapeutics

Empowering scientists to use RNA molecules to create the next generation of therapies

The development of RNA therapeutics is computationally intensive. This means that a robust and powerful bioinformatics platform is not just a nice-to-have — it’s a foundational necessity.

RNA-based therapeutics represent a groundbreaking and innovative approach to modern drug development. In countless labs and biotech companies worldwide, scientists are working to use RNA molecules to create a new generation of therapies. These therapies hold the promise of treating a wide array of diseases, from rare genetic disorders to common chronic conditions, offering hope and new possibilities in the medical field.

In this rapidly evolving field, bioinformatics stands as a cornerstone that is powering the development of these new RNA-based therapeutics. By integrating computational tools and biological data, bioinformatics enables researchers to decode complex genetic information, identify potential therapeutic targets, and streamline the design of RNA molecules. This synergy between computational analysis and molecular biology not only accelerates the drug development process but also enhances the precision and efficacy of RNA-based therapies, paving the way for groundbreaking treatments that are revolutionizing modern medicine.

Today, we’re exploring how Via Scientific’s Via Foundry bioinformatics platform is actively helping scientists and biotech companies accelerate their development of RNA-based therapeutics. First, we will review some of Via Foundry’s core capabilities, and then we will give a few examples of how companies are using Via Foundry to support and power their RNA therapeutics journey.

Via Foundry: Powering the Journey

The development of RNA therapeutics is computationally intensive. This means that a robust and powerful bioinformatics platform is not just a nice-to-have — it’s a foundational necessity. Via Foundry’s advanced capabilities streamline the entire computational journey that underlies the development of RNA therapeutics. From data integration to data interrogation and more, Via Foundry ensures that every step is optimized for speed and accuracy.

Via Foundry supports a wide range of pipelines crucial for bioinformatics and genomics research:

• Bioinformatics and Genomics: Utilize omics data (genomics, transcriptomics) to identify potential targets.
• scRNA-seq: Analyze individual cell transcriptomes to identify and validate cell-specific targets.
• Spatial Transcriptomics: Map gene expression within tissues to understand spatial context and tissue-specific target expression.
• CRISPR/Cas9 Screening: Use genome editing tools to validate target function.
• RNA-seq: Assess the expression levels of potential targets.

After processing the data, Via Foundry enables the interrogation of this data using powerful visualization applications, providing researchers with critical insights and enhancing decision-making.

Whether you are a life scientist, bioinformatician, or company executive, Via Foundry enhances the journey by providing speed to insight, quality, reusability, explainability, and visibility.

Life Scientists: Empowering Discovery Without Coding

Life scientists are often at the forefront of discovery, but their work is frequently hindered by the need for coding expertise and data handling. With Via Foundry, this barrier is removed. Via Foundry enables scientists to focus on their research by leveraging its advanced bioinformatics tools, purposefully built for the analytics and data processing needed to support their RNA therapeutics work without them having to write a single line of code.

This means they can rapidly iterate on experiments, visualize complex data sets, and gain the insights that drive their research forward without needless technical overhead. In short, Via Foundry enables scientists to do more science and accelerate the generation of critical insights and ideas to support their development process.

Bioinformaticians: Eliminating Redundant Tasks and Accelerating Complex Tasks

For bioinformaticians, Via Foundry offers a powerful solution to one of their biggest challenges: redundant tasks. The platform automates routine processes such as data cleaning, integration, and preliminary standard analysis.

Via Foundry also simplifies and accelerates the complex task of building novel pipelines and interrogation tools to support science. Via Foundry’s modular pipeline-building environment, which utilizes reusable processes and containerization, along with its data orchestration environment with enhanced metadata tracking, enables experienced bioinformaticians to do more. Furthermore, it helps them focus on more complex, high-value tasks and novel algorithms, increasing productivity and enhancing the quality of their analyses, which further accelerates the scientific teams they are supporting.

Finally, Via Foundry reduces human error and ensures consistency across projects. The result is that Via Foundry significantly improves efficiency and reliability in bioinformatics research.

Via Foundry’s modular architecture enables your team to incorporate new means and methods into your computational infrastructure with both speed and ease. In so doing, new science is not a substitute for your work but an asset that can be instantly applied to your work.

Companies and Executives: Protecting Legacy, Future Proofing, and Ensuring Compliance

Companies and the C-Suite benefit immensely from Via Foundry’s comprehensive capabilities. Via Foundry’s robust data management and security features safeguard valuable information and memorialize historical tasks and analyses, which ensures reusability and reproducibility, while its compliance tools ensure adherence to regulatory standards.

As the science is always evolving, Via Foundry also ensures that your lab, or your company, is never locked into historical means, methods, and algorithms. Via Foundry’s modular architecture enables your team to incorporate new means and methods into your computational infrastructure with both speed and ease. In so doing, new science is not a substitute for your work but an asset that can be instantly applied to your work.

Lastly, Via Foundry ensures visibility into what is happening inside your company, enhancing your ability to navigate not just the complexity and state of the science you are developing but also managing the business dimensions enabling that science to take place.

In summary, Via Foundry enables you to save significant time and resources by streamlining and accelerating the R&D processes that support the development of your RNA therapeutics, ultimately accelerating your time-to-market. And to do so in a way that future proofs your critical investments.

The development of RNA therapeutics is not just about speed; it’s also about precision and innovation. With Via Foundry, companies are not just keeping pace — they are leading the charge.

Real-World Examples: Biotech Firms Specializing in RNA Therapeutics

Every company is different and has its own unique approach, but let’s take a closer look at how some biotech firms specializing in RNA therapeutics are using Via Foundry to support their development of RNA therapeutics — in many cases enabling them to do in mere weeks what would otherwise often take many months or even years to accomplish:

• RNA-Seq Work: Via Foundry is enabling countless scientists to perform comprehensive RNA sequencing analysis with unmatched speed, quality, and reproducibility. These uses all involve enabling the capturing and sharing of detailed insights into the target virus’s RNA, understanding its genome structure, identifying key genes, and optimizing selected RNA to prepare the vaccines and medicines.
• In-silico Mutation Analysis: In other cases, Via Foundry is the engine powering and managing high-throughput mutation analysis, enabling researchers to track in-silico viral mutations in selected sites on viral RNA sequences, such as those of HIV or COVID-19. Such uses are crucial for ensuring that the various vaccines or medicines being developed are effective against emerging variants of these viruses. As such variants continually evolve, Via Foundry’s ability to automate this effort is also critical and enables rapid scaling.
• Contamination Checks: Ensuring the purity of RNA constructs is critical in the development of all RNA therapeutics. Via Foundry’s rigorous quality control protocols include advanced contamination checks, which verify the integrity and purity of RNA samples companies are using in their vaccine or medicine development.
• Data Integration and Visualization: Rapid development of RNA therapeutics requires powerful data integration capabilities to enable the seamless merging of diverse datasets from various experiments along with the need for powerful visualization tools to support the development of core insights. We repeatedly see that data fusion coupled with the ability to have a unified view of that data enhances decision-making by providing a comprehensive picture of the RNA constructs and their potential effectiveness.
• Predictive Modeling: Lastly, across the RNA therapeutics landscape, we increasingly see customers leveraging machine learning algorithms so researchers can predict the behavior of RNA sequences, optimizing them for stability and efficacy in vaccine formulation. Via Foundry’s native machine learning capabilities, along with its ability to seamlessly incorporate and support third-party and custom models, have proven invaluable to companies as they seek to accelerate the development of their RNA therapeutics.

The above are illustrative and far from exhaustive. But across the board, we see that by leveraging Via Foundry, biotech firms can more efficiently navigate the complex landscape of RNA therapeutics. This allows them to turn raw data into actionable insights and high-quality RNA constructs, ultimately leading to the rapid development of their breakthrough vaccines and medicines.

The Future of RNA Therapeutics

The development of RNA therapeutics is not just about speed; it’s also about precision and innovation. With Via Foundry, companies are not just keeping pace — they are leading the charge. As the field of RNA therapeutics continues to expand, the ability to rapidly and accurately develop and modify RNA constructs will be the key to unlocking new treatments and therapies. With Via Foundry, you have the support you need to succeed in this mission.

About Via Scientific Inc.

Via Scientific Inc., a Cambridge-based tech and AI company, has launched Via Foundry, a multi-omics accelerator platform designed to advance scientific breakthroughs. Via Foundry automates complex data tasks with features like drag-and-drop pipelines and customizable analytics, ensuring data is shareable, reusable, and reproducible, allowing researchers to focus on scientific insights instead of code. Via Scientific supports biotech, pharma, research institutes, and universities.