[M.D Anderson ovarian cancer agreement]
>>FREMONT, Calif., Feb. 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Ciphergen Diagnostics, a division of Ciphergen Biosystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: CIPH - News), announced today that it has signed a research and license agreement with The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center to utilize Ciphergen's ProteinChip System and associated bioinformatics suites to further their ongoing research in ovarian cancer. M. D. Anderson is a major referral center for patients with ovarian cancer and is a National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center.
"This agreement allows us to further our collaborative efforts with leading ovarian cancer researchers to refine biomarkers to be used in an ovarian cancer diagnostic test. Last year's landmark publication in Cancer Research was the first in what we hope will be a series of publications describing the utility of these biomarkers. Dr. Bast, a world authority on ovarian cancer, was a key contributor to that publication and we are very pleased that he will continue his work with Ciphergen," stated Gail Page, President of Ciphergen's Diagnostics Division.
Under the terms of the agreement, Ciphergen will analyze clinical samples provided by M. D. Anderson for ovarian cancer using its Deep Proteome(TM) and Pattern Track(TM) suite of proteomics tools designed for biomarker discovery and development of assays using Ciphergen's ProteinChip System. Ciphergen has exclusive rights to license discoveries made during the course of this collaboration. This work will address multiple clinical questions, including validation of markers described in the Cancer Research article, as well as discovery of markers that distinguish ovarian cancer from other gynecologic masses and prediction of treatment response. Research workplans and licensing rights beyond ovarian cancer can be added to the basic research and license agreement by mutual consent of Ciphergen and M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.
"We are pleased to be working with Ciphergen Diagnostics to discover and characterize markers for ovarian cancer diagnostics," commented Dr. Robert C. Bast, Jr., Vice President of Translational Research at M. D. Anderson. "We hope that by combining Ciphergen's expertise in the biomarker discovery to diagnostic assay process with our clinical resources and expertise, we will be able to accelerate the development of new diagnostic approaches to ovarian cancer."<<
snip
Cheers, Tuck |
