Personal Genome Diagnostics, a Baltimore-based molecular testing firm that focuses on oncology diagnostics, has licensed a technology from Johns Hopkins University to increase its ability to detect cell-free cancers. PGDx has obtained rights to use a technology called PARE, an acronym for personalized analysis of rearranged ends. It allows the lab to detect tumor DNA free of any cells in a patient’s bloodstream. It also allows for the detection of structural changes in the cancer DNA that would assist oncologists in developing a treatment protocol. The tests may be performed without having to perform biopsies, which can be particularly extensive and painful for some kinds of organ cancers. Terms of the licensing arrangement were not disclosed. “Our success in routinely using cell-free circulating DNA from cancer patients to conduct advanced genomic analyses is a prime example of how our ongoing access to world-class genomics research, proprietary technologies, and clinical expertise is benefiting our growing customer base,” said Antony Newton, PGDx’s chief commercial officer. PGDx was launched in 2010 as a spinoff from Johns Hopkins, headed by two cancer genomics professors, Luis Diaz, M.D., and Victor Velculescu, M.D. The company’s primary products are CancerSelect, which can detect genetic alterations in 120 […]
Personal Genome Diagnostics, a Baltimore-based molecular testing firm that focuses on oncology diagnostics, has licensed a technology from Johns Hopkins University to increase its ability to detect cell-free cancers.
PGDx has obtained rights to use a technology called PARE, an acronym for personalized analysis of rearranged ends. It allows the lab to detect tumor DNA free of any cells in a patient’s bloodstream. It also allows for the detection of structural changes in the cancer DNA that would assist oncologists in developing a treatment protocol. The tests may be performed without having to perform biopsies, which can be particularly extensive and painful for some kinds of organ cancers.
Terms of the licensing arrangement were not disclosed.
“Our success in routinely using cell-free circulating DNA from cancer patients to conduct advanced genomic analyses is a prime example of how our ongoing access to world-class genomics research, proprietary technologies, and clinical expertise is benefiting our growing customer base,” said Antony Newton, PGDx’s chief commercial officer.
PGDx was launched in 2010 as a spinoff from Johns Hopkins, headed by two cancer genomics professors, Luis Diaz, M.D., and Victor Velculescu, M.D. The company’s primary products are CancerSelect, which can detect genetic alterations in 120 specific cancer genes, and CancerComplete, which detects specific mutations in cancer genes to better target treatments. The firm has grown from just the two physicians to more than a dozen employees.
Takeaway: Companies spun off from academic research may have an advantage in obtaining cutting-edge sequencing technologies.
