Biomarker Commons

NextBio recently announced a multi-year collaboration with Sanofi (NYSE:SNY) aimed at using NextBio Clinical to incorporate patient omics and clinical data into Sanofi's drug research and development, as part of Sanofi's Translational Medicine for Patients (TM4P) program.

The allure of personalized medicine has made new, more efficient ways of sequencing genes a top research priority. One promising technique involves reading DNA bases using changes in electrical current as they are threaded through a nanoscopic hole. Now, a team led by University of Pennsylvania physicists has used solid-state nanopores to differentiate single-stranded DNA molecules containing sequences of a single repeating base.

Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) is a technique in which the nucleus of a donor cell is transferred to an egg cell whose nucleus has been removed, generating embryos that are almost an identical genetic match to the donor individual. For the first time, a team of scientists has used SCNT to produce human embryonic stem cells (hESCs). This milestone, published by Cell Press May 15th in the journal Cell, opens up new avenues for using stem cells to understand patient-specific causes of disease and for developing personalized therapies.

Amgen (NASDAQ: AMGN) recently announced results from three analyses of Vectibix® (panitumumab) in combination with FOLFOX, an oxaliplatin-based chemotherapy regimen, as a first-line treatment for metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC). These analyses include the description of new predictive biomarkers of clinical response to Vectibix, activating mutations in KRAS (beyond exon 2) and mutations in NRAS, collectively referred to as RAS.

Recently, the Journal of the American Heart Association published conclusive results from a study directed by Dr. Éric Thorin of the Montreal Heart Institute (MHI), which suggests for the first time that a blood protein contributes to the early development of atherosclerosis.