HistoRx, Inc. Announces Expanded Access of AQUA(R) Technology to 900+ Researchers at Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center
NEW HAVEN, Conn., May 29 /PRNewswire/ -- HistoRx, Inc., announced today that the pathology core facility at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) will begin making the company's AQUA(R) technology for protein biomarker profiling available to the more than 900 Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center (DF/HCC) scientists that are serviced by the facility. Brigham and Women's purchased a HistoRx PM-2000(TM) tissue analysis platform instrument, which incorporates the proprietary AQUA(R) technology, in 2005.
The pathology core facility at BWH is a service hub that provides state-of-the-art tissue-based tests and analysis to investigators at DF/HCC institutions, which include Brigham and Women's Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, Harvard School of Public Health, Children's Hospital Boston, Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital, and Massachusetts General Hospital. The core facility is using the AQUA(R) technology to identify and quantify protein biomarkers in tissue samples for researchers advancing studies on cancer diagnostics and drug development. Jon Aster, M.D., Ph.D., core facility director and Associate Professor in the Department of Pathology, and Scott Rodig, M.D., Ph.D., Assistant Professor in Pathology, both of BWH, will oversee the technology access expansion to the DF/HCC member institutions.
The PM-2000(TM) system, now in use at 12 leading cancer and pathology research centers through the HARP(TM) program (HistoRx Academic Research Program), enables the reliable measurement of protein biomarkers in tissue and tissue microarrays based on fluorescent immunohistochemical methods. Assays developed on the system may be used to better understand the origins of diseases as well as to aid in patient selection for clinical trials and targeted therapies.
"We are pleased to see the use of AQUA(R) technology expanded within this preeminent cancer research center," said John L. Tonkinson, Ph.D., Vice President of Business Development at HistoRx. "We look forward to exciting new applications and results utilizing AQUA(R) technology coming out of the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center institutions."
About the HARP(TM) Program
The HistoRx Academic Research Program (HARP) provides oncologists and pathologists at leading academic research institutions in North America and Europe access to the AQUA(R) technology for use exclusively in noncommercial research. Academic and other not-for-profit research institutions are eligible to participate in HARP. Membership benefits include noncommercial use of the AQUA platform. (System components include AQUA(R) software for tissue analysis and the PM-2000(TM) image analyzer.)
About HistoRx (www.historx.com)
HistoRx is developing and commercializing pioneering quantitative histopathology technology that provides exceptional measurement and localization of protein biomarkers in their natural context within tissue. The HistoRx proprietary AQUA(R) technology is the first platform capable of measuring biomarker concentration with subcellular resolution to generate more precise, efficient, and cost-effective answers about the safety and effectiveness of new therapeutics in development as well as enable the development of companion diagnostic tests for targeted therapies. HistoRx services are used by pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies throughout discovery research, preclinical studies, and clinical drug development. HistoRx companion diagnostic products are linked to our partners' drug candidates in development to predict therapeutic outcome. HistoRx also pursues internal programs to develop proprietary in vitro diagnostics that offer substantial improvements over existing immunohistochemistry-based tests.
Note to reporters and editors: A photo of the HistoRx PM-2000(TM) instrument is available at www.historx.com/news/gallery.html
CONTACT: Mary Moynihan of M2Friend Biocommunications, +1-802-951-9600,
mary@m2friend.com
Web site: http://www.historx.com/