Biomarker Commons

Patients with coronary artery disease who undergo treatment at the University of Maryland Medical Center now can receive long-term therapy based on information found in their genes. As part of a new personalized medicine initiative, the medical center is offering genetic testing to help doctors determine which medication a patient should take after a stenting procedure in order to prevent blood clots that could lead to serious – and potentially fatal – heart attacks and strokes.

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.

The Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR) and the Ontario Genomics Institute (OGI) recently announced that Dr. Lincoln Stein, OICR’s Program Leader, Informatics and Bio-computing, has been awarded $250,000 through Genome Canada’s Bioinformatics and Computational Biology competition, in partnership with the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). Dr. Stein and his colleague Dr. Guanming Wu, aim to develop software that will improve the treatment of cancer patients by enabling physicians to study and visualize the genomic aberrations of individual patients.

Exosome Diagnostics, a leading developer of biofluid-based molecular diagnostic products for use in personalized medicine research and clinical diagnostics, recently presented data at the American Urological Association Annual Meeting in San Diego demonstrating the performance of urine exosome technology in accurately predicting the outcome of a prostate biopsy.

A molecular signature index technology that can lead to better radiation therapy decisions for patients with cancer is being developed into a reliable radiosensitivity test by CvergenX, Inc., an advanced cancer diagnostics company. It is being done in conjunction with the National Cancer Institute’s Clinical Assay Development Program (CADP).