Potential Prognostic Human Breast Cancer Biomarkers Identified

Scientists have identified a set of 54 potential prognostic human breast cancer biomarkers that correlate to the predicted outcome of estrogen receptor (ER) treatment for breast cancer patients. These studies also detected far more ER interactive promoters throughout the genome than was previously observed.

Studies reported in the March 23, 2007 Proceeding of the [U.S.] National Academy of Sciences by Dr. Xiandong Fu's laboratory at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD; San Diego, USA) and Aviva Systems Biology (ASB; San Diego, CA, USA) demonstrated the super-sensitivity of ASB's core ChIP-DSL (Chromatin Immunoprecipitation-DNA Selection and Ligation) technology for its biomarker discovery application. Utilizing ChIP-DSL's ability to detect virtually all DNA-protein interactions with a limited cancer cell sample (106 cells), the studies also detected far more ER interactive promoters throughout the genome than was previously observed, illustrating ChIP-DLS's power of sensitivity and specificity.

The identification of these potential breast cancer biomarkers demonstrates the power of the ChIP-DSL technology in identifying disease-related biomarkers that may have significant therapeutic and diagnostic applications, stated ASB CEO, Julian Yuan, and serves as a milestone for applying ChIP-DSL to biomarker discovery in the pharmaceutical industry.

ASB develops of reagents for transcription factor research including antibodies to all putative transcription factors. ASB also generates antibodies and additional reagents for other important research areas.


Related Links:
University of California, San Diego
Aviva Systems Biology