Crosslinks

Crosslinks is hiring

admin — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 09:53:33 +0000

We’re looking to hire a QA Manager with knowledge of quality systems and methodologies to take Crosslinks to the highest-quality solutions that meet the strict safety and compliance standards for our diagnostic solutions. For information click here.

CTMM Press release Two million euros for project BIOCHIP

admin — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 09:24:39 +0000

The press release announces that the CTMM BIOCHIP project will receive additional research budget (2 M€) in order to speed up the development / market introduction of the MMprofiler. Crosslinks is one of the business associates in this research project, where we are focusing on the development of the validated diagnostic platform (vDAP).

TEDxMaastricht: Medicine’s future? There is an app for that

admin — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 12:56:35 +0000

At TEDxMaastricht, Daniel Kraft offers a fast-paced look at the next few years of innovations in medicine, powered by new tools, tests and apps that bring diagnostic information right to the patient’s bedside.
This is an excellent overview of the the type of projects Crosslinks is involved in.

Crosslinks was proud to be one of the TEDxMaastricht invited attendees, we hope to return in 2011.

Rotterdam hosts International Symposium on Pediatric Inflammatory Bowel Disease (PIBD)

admin — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 13:24:37 +0000

Rotterdam is selected to host the 3rd International Symposium on Pediatric Inflammatory Bowel Disease (PIBD). The focus of the conference is on chronic bowel disease (i.e. Crohn Disease and Colitis Ulcerosa). The conference will take place September 2013. Read more about this conference.

As part of pediatric efforts we are proud to host and maintain the Eurokids IBD research database.

Bioinformatics sees massive investments by R&D firms

admin — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 13:03:39 +0000

A recent article from the Financial Express talks about the upcoming trend in pharma and biotech companies for outsourcing bioinformatics services.
The Financial Express article.

Mood disorder publications for MoodInflame

Kim — Thu, 19 May 2011 09:44:12 +0000

Crosslinks wishes to give special mention to 3 publications recently generated from within the MoodInflame EU FP7 project:

1. “Inflammatory stimuli reduce survival of serotonergic neurons and induce neuronal expression of indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase in rat dorsal raphe nucleus organotypic brain slices” by Hochstrasser T, Ullrich C, Sperner-Unterweger B and Humpel C.

This article has just been accepted for publication in “Neuroscience” and it’s pre-release abstract is available for viewing on PubMed (April 12, 2011).

2. “Antidepressants increase human hippocampal neurogenesis by activating the glucocorticoid receptor” by Anacker C, Zunszain PA, Cattaneo A, Carvalho LA, Garabedian MJ, Thuret S, Price J and Pariante CM.

This article was selected by the European commission (April 13, 2011) to be posted as a special news item on the EU Cordis site. The web-post makes mention of the MoodInflame project including its individual consortium countries and is a great advertisement for our collective work.

3. The EU has also released a general article on the MoodInflame project titled: “Does brain inflammation disrupt mood regulation?”

Project initiative to target child malnutrition

Kim — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 09:47:16 +0000

Crosslinks has begun work on a nutrition project designing a software package that can be used for the screening and tracking of malnourished children.

As of 2011, Dutch law requires every child who is admitted to hospital to be screened for malnutrition and so this project, funded by the well-known company Nutricia (of the Danone Group), aims to assist the Government’s initiative in combating child malnutrition in The Netherlands.

Simulating the physiology of bicycle racing

admin — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 11:27:48 +0000

The paper ‘Simulating the physiology of athletes during endurance sports events: Modeling human energy conversion and metabolism’ (van Beek et al.) was accepted for publication in Philosophical Transactions A and we are happy that one of Crosslinks’ employees could contribute to this publication.

The paper describes the simulation of athletic performance with a computational model of energy turnover and heat transport in the whole human body. To verify the whole body modeling approach, a mountain time trial in the Tour de France from Bourg d’Oisans to Alpe d’Huez was simulated using published physiological data of Lance Armstrong, sevenfold Tour de France champion.

Paper is still under embargo until October 3rd 2011.

How anti-depressants work

admin — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 12:26:09 +0000

Researchers of the MOODINFLAME have discovered for the first time how anti-depressants make new brain cells. This will enable the researchers from the King’s College (Institute of Psychiatry, London, UK) to develop better and more efficient drugs to combat depression.

Within the MOODINFLAME project, Crosslinks is responsible for regulating the security and reliability of all electronic clinical data. The software platform we are developing for this task includes a database and data management tools. In addition, there will be an upload and statistical validation portal added during this year.

Please find the full article here.

V-Scope demonstration at the IGO Conference in Rotterdam

Kim — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 14:03:59 +0000

This week, from 6 – 8 April, members of the Crosslinks team are in attendance at the 18^th Infertility, Gynecology & Obstetrics Conference, held at De Doelen in Rotterdam.

Crosslinks’ presence at this conference is to provide demonstrations of our V-Scope desktop system to the visiting gynecologists, obstetricians and sonographers. We aim to show how the 3D medical image rendering and visualization capabilities of V-Scope can improve diagnostics within this particular field of medicine.

Pediatric support services

Kim — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 09:15:21 +0000

Crosslinks was selected by Sophia Children’s Hospital in Rotterdam to continue work on two existing pediatric projects.

Crosslinks has developed a new website that provides links to two existing applications for the Hospital. For the first of these applications, known as “PAOS” (Post Academic Education at Sophia), Crosslinks has created a new website which provides information and registration capabilities to surgeons and doctors from within Sophia to attend after-hours courses where they can receive instruction on a range of new and different pediatric medical techniques.

The second application is being hosted and maintained by Crosslinks and contains an international database: EuroKids IBD. This application collects and stores data relating to pediatric patients suffering from Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

Crosslinks finalises project takeover at Sophia

Kim — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 08:58:40 +0000

31 March 2011 – Crosslinks was selected by Sophia Children’s Hospital in Rotterdam to continue work on two existing pediatric projects. Initial work on applications for PAOS and EuroKids IBD currently involves new web-design and improved website function.

Crosslinks in Paris

admin — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 12:21:38 +0000

Crosslinks representatives are currently in Paris at the TIBCO Spotfire European User Conference. As a sponsoring partner of this event we are enjoying the opportunity to host fellow users and to share and discuss best Spotfire practice methods.

Our presentation titled “The Use of Spotfire in the Research and Development of a Bacterial Population Diagnostic Device” will be given on Thursday the 17th of March.

Congratulations Thomas and Alex

admin — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 14:27:37 +0000

Crosslinks congratulates our colleagues Thomas Binsl and Alex Michie on their academic achievements this month.

Thomas successfully defended his PhD thesis titled “Fluxes of Life – Bioinformatics for Metabolic Flux Quantification in Isotopic Non-Steady-State” on Friday the 11th of March at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam. That same day Alex received his MBA from the Rotterdam School of Management.

Thomas joined Crosslinks late last year as a senior bionformatician and business developer and Alex, our COO, joined the team 2 years ago. We are very proud to have them onboard!

We congratulate Skyline Diagnostics

admin — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 15:43:35 +0000

Crosslinks congratulates Skyline Diagnostics with the release of their AMLprofiler product, their first commercially available CE-marked diagnostic microarray. This custom Affymetrix microarray provides unsurpassed personalized diagnosis to Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) patients. We are proud to be able to deliver the diagnostic analysis platform infrastructure to Skyline as part as our joint CTMM Biochip project and are looking forward to continue working with then in the future.

iNeo Stroke

admin — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 12:00:37 +0000

iNeo Stroke has been developed as an interactive brain atlas for use in neonatal neurological care. The application allows clinicians around the world to access relevant reference information regarding brain lesions and stroke symptoms/occurrences via a personal iPhone.

See our products page for more information.

Biochip: microarray-based diagnoses of Acute Myeloid Leukaemia

admin — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 11:50:21 +0000

Crosslinks is producing a robust diagnostic analysis platform to support Skyline Diagnostics in their efforts to deliver microarray-based diagnoses of Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML). These results will enable speedy and accurate identification of Leukaemia sub-types so that the most effective subtype-specific treatments can be employed as quickly as possible. The Biochip project is funded through the CTMM (Centre for Translational Molecular Medicine) initiative. Our platform is designed to be compliant with the stringent demands of the United States Federal Drug Agency (FDA) and it is envisaged that it will be available, either as software as a service (SAAS) or as an “in house” solution, for other biotech companies with similar microarray-based diagnostics efforts.

CTMM Project page

Automatic rapid identification of bacteria

admin — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 11:40:15 +0000

In this project Crosslinks is supporting one of our partners in the development of a diagnostic module that makes the rapid diagnosis of bacteria possible. The final integration of the diagnostic module into our diagnostic analysis platform (vDAP) will enable hospitals to remotely diagnose their patients quickly and will consequently change the way patients are treated. The new technique developed by our partner is based on targeting particular parts of bacterial genomes, which are specific for different bacterial species.

Because of heavily overlapping symptoms, bacterial diagnosis and treatment of infectious diseases is difficult based on clinical symptoms only. Therefore, patients are often treated empirically. More efficient treatment and management of infectious diseases, however, requires rapid point-of-care in vitro diagnostic methods.

Analysis of patients with ischemic cerebrovascular disease

admin — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 11:30:55 +0000

The quantification of the affected areas of brain with ischemic cerebrovascular disease (from MRI images) using automated analysis of brain imaging in order to have additional and more objective data that can be associated with genotypes. Analysis of single nucleotide polymorphism (Illumina 610k) of patients with ischemic cerebrovascular disease. Automated image processing of brain MRI (dicom files) data and comparison of quantitative analysis of pathological regions in multi-slice vs volume brain MRI of patients with ischemic cerebrovascular disease. Data integration for genotype and phenotype results. Statistical analysis of genotype to phenotype association.

Congenital Heart Disease

admin — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 11:20:23 +0000

The purpose of the KinCor project is to develop a registration system for the support of clinical research in pediatric cardiology. The focus of this rapidly developing speciality is on congenital, aquired, and hereditary abnormalities of the heart and vascular system in children. All academic departments for pediatric cardiology in the Netherlands will participate in this registration that will provide reseachers with a valuable resource for future clinical studies.

In this project Crosslinks is responsible for the development of the system (functional design and implementation) and works in close collaboration with the participating clinical partners. In addition to this Crosslinks has an advisory role on organizational, financial, and legal aspects of the project.

Project is funded by the Dutch Heart Foundationand the NFU, the Dutch Federation of University Medical Centers.

Kinderformularium (nkfk)

admin — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 11:10:08 +0000

Crosslinks has implemented a web application consisting of a database back-end and a web interface which is allowing Dutch pediatricians and pharmacists to access recommendations regarding optimal pediatric dosage for many over-the-counter and prescription medications. This “children’s formula” application is suitable for further development for use on mobile phones.

ESPE e-learning

admin — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 11:06:42 +0000

The ESPE e-learning webportal gives you an entrance to an interactive learning environment for up to date pediatric endocrinology. This webportal for is made for medical students, residents, fellows, specialists, consultants and teachers around the world to meet each other to gain, share, contribute and develop knowledge in an accessible and flexible way. So far 3 major chapters have been constructed: Growth, Puberty and DSD. These chapters contain core modules aimed primarily at medical students but also advanced modules specifically aimed at post-doc students, fellows. Assignments are intended to evoke actions related to gain of knowledge, skills and attitudes. Formative assessment is given by providing feedback to steer the learning process.

Growth Analyser

admin — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 11:05:04 +0000

Growth Analyser is intended to support paediatricians and clinical researchers with the registration and analysis of growth and development data of their patients, using the best reference standards and analysis tools available, presented in an easy to use format. The tools includes 170 different country, regional, ethnic and diagnosis based growth curves.

http://www.growthanalyser.org/

Nephrotic Syndrome

admin — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 11:04:37 +0000

A patient registration system was built for the nephrotic children workgroup. This system is able to plot a patient disease profile and gives a disease classification. This schematic overview assists a diagnostician with the treatment for future patients.

NKFK website

admin — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 11:00:36 +0000

Our portfolio consist of many different types of projects including web design and development. An example of web design and development is the NKFK website.

The Dutch Expertise Centre for Paediatric Pharmacotherapy (NKFK) is a governmentally funded multidisciplinary expertise network that aims to improve the quality and safety of pharmacotherapy for children.

Launch of first iPhone app

admin — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 09:51:45 +0000

We are proud to announce the launch of our new iPhone application, iNeo Stroke.

This application is the first practical guide for making a correct diagnosis of suspected neonatal stroke. The App is developed for Paul Govaert, MD, PhD at Sophia Children’s Hospital in Erasmus Medical Centre Rotterdam, the Netherlands and at ZNA Koningin Paola Kinderziekenhuis in Antwerp, Belgium.

For more information about iNeo Stroke, click here.

Or to download it now directly from the iTunes store, click here.

New logo, new website, same company…

admin — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 09:40:51 +0000

In case you didn’t already notice, the Crosslinks web site has been completely redesigned. The colors are different, the menus are different, the layout is different… even our logo has been updated. In fact we’ve changed just about everything except our commitment to delivering high-quality, diverse solutions for our clients.

The original Crosslinks web design was around for nearly two years. Clearly it was time to retire the old design and get up with something new and fresh. It took some time to construct an entirely new design but we managed within a reasonable time and here it is! We hope you like it.

PreconceptieWijzer

admin — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 08:55:07 +0000

Preconception care includes all measures that can be taken before fertilization. Optimizing the health of the mother and her future child. By early identification and possible elimination of risk factors, adverse outcome of pregnancy, and diseases or abnormalities in mother and child can be prevented. Online tool for caregivers involved in preconception care, including obstetricians, gynecologists and general practitioners. PreconceptieWijzer makes it possible to consistently provide guidelines on preconception care.

PreconceptieWijzer was developed for the Erasmus MC and Star Diagnostic Medical Center in Rotterdam

Match study

admin — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 15:23:05 +0000

The identification by omics technologies of prognostic markers to predict colorectal cancer behavior and response to treatment especially as far as liver metastasis is concerned.
Objectives are to collect clinical data from patients with colorectal cancer. Organize regional follow-up regimen for diagnosing local recurrence and distant metastases. Store tissue, blood and urine in regional databank for omics profiling. Linking clinical and molecular data to develop tailor-made therapy for individual patients. Organize a research network in the Erasmus MC region that facilitates the implementation of more research and clinical protocols.

Analyzing Pepper Varieties using Single Feature Polymorphism

admin — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 13:12:54 +0000

DNA polymorphism is the basis for the development of molecular markers, an indispensable tool in genetic mapping studies and validating varieties of inbred plant species. Genetic differences between two sequences, originating from two different plant varieties, serve as a molecular marker popularly known as single feature polymorphism (SFP).

In this project the gene expression data of a pepper was obtained by hybridizing RNA to an oligonucleotide array, resulting in differential hybridization intensities. Crosslinks analyzed these intensities using statistical methods that looked at differences in varieties at the probe-level.

EU FP7 HiPerDART

admin — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 13:03:24 +0000

HiPerDART is an EU funded project project aiming to develop a higher standard (clinical) microarray technology platform, by using an innovative probe printing technology called Supramolecular NanoStamping (SuNS). Crosslinks’ role within the project is to perform quality control measurements to ensure they are comparable or superior to other established competing platforms. We also aim to verify the sensitivity and specificity of the signals in samples obtained in a clinical setting, and perform statistical analysis for the validation of the diagnostic profiles that have been generated. Once complete, the system will be made available for medical use by leveraging the (Biochip) analytical diagnostic platform technology.

Project call: FP7-HEALTH-2007-1.1-4
Project #:
Website:

EU FP7 MoodInflame

admin — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 11:13:54 +0000

Moodinflame is an EU funded project which was established to investigate the effect of inflammation on mood disorders in their various forms. Within the project, Crosslinks is responsible for regulating the security and reliability of all electronic clinical data. The software platform we are developing for this task includes a database and data management tools and there will be an upload and statistical validation portal added during the coming year. The large number of consortium members (18 partners across 10 countries) gives us a wonderful opportunity to perform gross statistical analysis over a range of institutes working on similar disorders. It also gives us all the ability to make connections between different disorders.

Project call: FP7- HEALTH-2007-2.2.1-8
Project #:
Website: http://www.moodinflame.eu
Article: How anti-depressants work

EU FP6 RATstream

admin — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 13:04:12 +0000

The different approaches of the RATstream consortium partners (behavioral testing, PET imaging data, and microarray data) generate large amounts of different types of data in their efforts to pinpoint the phenotypical characteristics of neurodegenerative diseases. Therefore, a central repository where the consortium partners can store and retrieve their data is necessary. Crosslinks provides this data-management solution via the RATstream server, which is controlled via a central database and allows us to upload, store and analyze all project data.

Project call: FP6-2005-LIFESCIHEALTH-7
Project #: LSHM-037846
Website: http://www.ratstream.eu/

Predictive profiling Tox study

admin — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 08:30:54 +0000

Various Affymetrix microarray-based data analyses to support our customer in their goal to generate a quality-controlled database of reference compound transcriptomic signatures to
fingerprint and categorize new compound toxicity.

Determination of TGF-beta induced genes and Smad4-dependent genes in NMuMG and MDA cells.

admin — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 08:25:24 +0000

Analysis of Affymetrix microarrays including experimental quality control per microarray and statistical analysis using groupwise comparisons.
Reporting overview of TGF-b signalling pathways in mice (NmuMG) and human (MDA MB 23). Basic off-target analysis.