Biomarker Commons

Entelos Holding Corp. (“Entelos” or “the Company”), a premier provider of physiologicalsystemmodeling and services, and Seattle-based Institute for System Biology (ISB), the nonprofit pioneers of the systems approach to study the molecular causes of diseases, today announced the successful integration of gene expression data into quantitative physiological simulations.

Genomind, a personalized medicine company, has released a statement in response to the National Institute of Mental Health’s (NIMH) announcement by Director Dr. Thomas Insel that the organization will be re-orienting its research away from DSM categories, supporting the move and its potential to influence improved treatment of patients with mental disorders.

Adaptive Biotechnologies recently announced that it has entered into a collaboration agreement with Bristol-Myers Squibb for the discovery of immunological biomarkers in oncology.

"Current wisdom says that cells are closed entities that communicate through the secretion of soluble signalling molecules. Recent findings indicate that cells can exchange more complex information – whole packages of genetic material and signalling proteins. This is an entirely new conception of how cells communicate", says Dr Mattias Belting, Professor of Oncology at Lund University and senior consultant in oncology at Skåne University Hospital, Lund, Sweden.

Oxford Cancer Biomarkers Ltd (OCB), the UK-based company developing tests that allow medicines to be personalised for the benefit of the cancer patient, recently announced an agreement with AstraZeneca for biomarker discovery, with the potential for further collaboration on validation and development of resulting biomarkers.

OCB will work with an undisclosed AstraZeneca cancer drug to discover biomarkers that have the potential to predict responders and non-responders to the drug. Under the agreement, AstraZeneca has been granted an option to license biomarkers from the programme.

Roche (SIX: RO, ROG; OTCQX: RHHBY) and Isis Pharmaceuticals, Inc (NASDAQ: ISIS) recently announced that they have formed an alliance to develop treatments for Huntington's disease (HD) based on Isis' antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) technology. This alliance combines Isis' antisense expertise with Roche's scientific expertise in developing neurodegenerative therapeutics. In addition, Isis and Roche will be collaborating to combine Isis' ASOs and Roche's proprietary "brain shuttle" program with the objective of increasing the brain penetration of ASOs with systemic administration.