Company receives US$1 million for the development of a new tool for cancer detection
Blood biomarker detection system is to be adapted to test for cancer-related antigens.
Genalyte Inc. (CA, USA), a clinical and life science company specializing in instrumentation and multiplex assays for biomarker and protein detection, has been awarded a US$1 million research grant to develop a biomarker panel to profile tumor antigen-associated autoantibodies.
The panel will run on Genalyte’s multiplexed Maverick™ Detection System, which uses a silicon chip containing arrays of photonic ring sensors to reduce or eliminate sample preparation and provide scalable multiplexing for both proteins and nucleic acids.
According to a press release from Genalyte, the objective of the project is to develop a test that allows researchers to profile and monitor cancer-associated immune responses with a simple and efficient blood test. The invasion of the body by cancer stimulates an immune response that acts to combat its growth. The nature of the response can assist in stratifying cancer types, monitoring disease progression and the effectiveness of treatment. The tumor antigen-associated autoantibodies, which the company intends to profile, have demonstrated the potential to detect cancer early, when the likelihood of a positive prognosis is greatest.
Martin Gleeson, Chief Scientific Officer of Genalyte, stated that so far, “Individual cancer biomarkers have been identified, but they do not provide an adequate level of specificity.” Gleeson added, “This grant will allow us to assemble high-priority immune system-associated biomarkers into a panel with the aim of providing a true detection value with enhanced specificity to researchers and ultimately, clinicians and patients.”
Genalyte is to collaborate with researchers at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (TX, USA), Providence Cancer Center (OR, USA) and Wayne State University (MI, USA), in order to select and validate the biomarkers included in the panel.
Martin Cheever, Director of the Cancer Immunotherapy Trials Network at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center (WA, USA), is serving as an advisor to the project. Cheever recently led a National Cancer Institute (MD, USA) pilot project to prioritize cancer-related antigens as targets for immunotherapy, which produced a list of 75 antigens that will be assessed in the new effort.
Cheever commented, “The technology developed at Genalyte holds great potential as a novel tool to monitor immune responses to cancer antigens. This effort to characterize antigens as functional targets in patients could help accelerate progress in cancer immunotherapy.”
