Iceland Genomics and Aclara in Biomarker Alliance

An agreement to validate candidate biomarkers and their utility as indicators of disease progression and predictors of response to therapy has been announced by Iceland Genomics Corp. (IGC, Reykjavik, Iceland) and Aclara BioSciences (Mountain View, CA, USA).

Under the agreement Aclara will utilize its proprietary eTag assays to analyze tumor samples from cancer patients provided by IGC to validate candidate biomarkers. ICG will also provide blood samples and blinded patient data, including treatment histories and outcomes. Aclara will provide funding to IGC and will share the data from the study with IGC for incorporation into its database.

Aclara's eTAG assays are able to identify difficult-to-detect protein complexes that can provide unique insights as to the likelihood of particular patients to respond to specific therapies. In addition, since eTag assays can utilize formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded clinical samples, the standard format in most pathology laboratories, this will enable the analysis of both archived samples from initial biopsies or surgeries as well as freshly collected materials.

The biomarkers under evaluation are proteins and protein complexes and their different functional or activation states that comprise signaling pathways in cells. These pathways enable information transfer within and between cells, and control such processes as cell growth, division, and death. When these pathways malfunction, the affected cells can become cancerous, dividing uncontrollably. By measuring the targeted proteins and pathways directly, Aclara believes it can help doctors better determine whether certain therapies are more appropriate for individual cancer patients.

"There is clearly a need for better methods to assess cancer patients, both from a preferred treatment and ultimate prognosis perspective,” said Dana Hosseini, chief executive officer of Iceland Genomics. "We look forward to the results of this study, and seeing how they correlate with other measures used to evaluate these samples at Iceland Genomics.”



Related Links:
Iceland Genomics
Alcara Biosciences