Applied Maths, the Ghent-based developer of bioinformatic tools, has been acquired by BioMérieux. The software provided by Applied Maths facilitates the interpretation of complex biological data and is currently used in fields such as food safety and epidemiology. During the German EHEC-outbreak, a few years ago, it was the Belgian software which monitored the spread of the bacterium and identified the origin of contamination. Also several national food safety instances, such as the center for disease control and prevention in the USA, make use of Applied Maths’ expertise and products.
Advances in biotechnology and big data acquisition, such as next-generation sequencing and mass-spectrometry, has created a need for tools to extract usable information from large data sets. Bioinformatics facilitate these processes, distilling practical facts from an enormous pile of numbers.
The French BioMérieux is an absolute titan in pharma and in vitro diagnostics, and specializes in tracking down cancer and infectious diseases. The overlap with Applied Maths in the field of microbiology offers the blueprint for a constructive collaboration.
Applied Maths CEO Koen Janssens: “Applied Maths is very pleased to join the bioMérieux family. Our common passion for microbiology forms a very solid basis to build our future synergies on the short and longer term. By combining our fields of expertise, we will improve the quality of public health and food safety worldwide.”
