Though MAS predates every corporate entity under discussion, LumiCyte is a young operation (1999) and doesn't have much to show -- or that it wants to. If LumiCyte has customers they aren't saying who. On their website they talk of NCI:
>> LumiCyte is working in collaboration with centers of clinical excellence worldwide including medical and academic institutions such as the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The NCI/FDA collaboration builds on work in which LumiCyte scientists, in collaboration with the NCI/FDA, discovered what appears to be a unique pattern of proteins in the serum of asymptomatic prostate cancer patients. The protein biomarker profiles currently being validated have not been previously identified as biomarkers for prostate cancer.<<
But make no reference to a publication, nor could I find any searching PubMed in several ways.
>>LumiCyte discovers and validates new Protein BioMarker Profiles, focusing initially on four diseases: breast cancer, diabetes, ovarian cancer and prostate cancer.<<
Meanwhile, CIPH does, in a sense, sell information . . .
Snip of CEO Rich from CIPH Pr of 5/29/01:
"The Biomarker Patterns Software module that is being launched addresses a key component of the biomarker discovery process. A major benefit of the ProteinChip platform is in the discovery and correlation of multiple biomarkers in a population of samples to rapidly validate clinical, toxicological and cell pathway pathology. As was the case in the development of DNA array technology, the flood of data produced by the instrument makes informatics tools critical to interpreting the results. The new software package combined with an updated ‘Biomarker Wizard’ in Ciphergen’s core software package automatically identifies multiple protein peaks that correlate with phenotype differences between samples. The new line of ProteinChip Arrays improves both the total number of proteins detected from a single sample as well as the data reproducibility from run-to-run. In combination with pattern recognition analysis, these array improvements create high clinical statistical confidence in sample stratification results.”<<
So they are taking the same path, but to the same end user?
Anyhow, they use Shimadzu (Kratos) mass specs. That is their only strategic alliance. Partners not mentioned, only collaborators mentioned with any specificity are NCI/FDA scientists.
I hate researching private companies, and I'm done with this one. Bet you're glad.
Cheers, Tuck |
