Collaboration to research diagnostic tools for personalized cancer care

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. and the Newman-Lakka Institute for Personalized Cancer Care at Floating Hospital for Children at Tufts Medical Center, recently announced a partnership for the development of new diagnostic methods to detect and track circulating blood biomarkers.

Using Thermo Fisher’s latest LC–MS technology, the collaboration will develop methods for the identification of protein biomarkers for tumor-associated blood vessel formation and a variety of cancers, including breast and prostate cancer.

Charles Newman, President of the Newman-Lakka Cancer Foundation, commented: “Our challenge and hope is to change the current standard of care, and our collaboration with Thermo Fisher and access to its state-of-the-art instrumentation will accelerate our mission. We hope to be able to provide oncologists with a panel of biomarkers that sense microscopic levels of tumor cells with a simple blood test.

“The goal is to develop diagnostic tools to make it possible for physicians to check off a panel of biomarkers when patients get regular checkups, so early detection of disease can facilitate effective treatment. In addition, the goal is to enable oncologists to monitor the efficacy of treatment with a blood test, rather than waiting 2 months for an MRI and exposing the patients to additional harmful radiation.”

An instrument to be used during this research will be installed at the Genesis Research Institute laboratory adjacent to the Newman-Lakka Institute at Tufts Medical Center. Thermo Fisher Scientific Biomarkers Research Initiatives in Mass Spectrometry center is supporting the collaboration and will be conducting the methods developed by the collaboration using Thermo Fisher Scientific’s triple quadrupole and high-resolution accurate MS instruments coupled to MS immunoassay technology and novel software workflows.

“We are extremely pleased about this opportunity to collaborate with experts in the search for better cancer treatments,” said Mary Lopez, Director of the Biomarkers Research Initiatives in Mass Spectrometry Center. “We anticipate great synergy between Newman-Lakka’s cancer research expertise and our own strength in applying MS to biological research and the advancement of personalized medicine will give greater value to both organizations.”

Source: Thermo Fisher press release