CAMBRIDGE, England, Feb. 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Cytomyx Holdings Plc (AIM: CYX) today announced that it has launched new Biomarker tools from its earlier collaboration agreement with OriGene Technologies Inc.
Under the terms of the agreement, Cytomyx supplied hundreds of highly characterized RNA samples from a wide range of major cancers from its extensive Biorepository. OriGene has used these samples to develop human tissue Real-Time PCR Panels. These panels currently cover Prostate, Breast, Colon, Lung, Ovarian, Thyroid and Kidney Cancers allowing scientists to validate biomarkers across hundreds of tissues in less than two hours. Each unique tissue is linked to highly annotated pathology reports and tissue images. These TissueScan Panels enable researchers to profile gene expression levels in these patient derived samples to determine linkages between gene expression and tumor occurrence and development.
“Cytomyx is rapidly transforming its high quality Biorepository into derivative products and has optimized them to use Real-Time PCR readouts. Real-Time PCR is the fastest growing segment of the Gene Expression market and these products enable researchers to rapidly assess gene expression levels across a wide range of patients with different forms and stages of the major cancers. We expect that it will become an important new resource in the effort to characterize tumors at the genetic level and may help in the development of precisely targeted new diagnostics and therapies in the future,” said Scott Steelman, PhD, Vice President of Cytomyx, “We are pleased to be working with OriGene who have established themselves as a leading developer of gene function products. In particular their access to the global market for research products will help to ensure the success of this important new product line.”
“Having tools that demonstrates correlation of mRNA levels to detailed disease stage is critical for biomarker validation,” said Rich Hamer, PhD, Vice President at OriGene. “OriGene’s TissueScan platform combined with the depth of Cytomyx’ Biorepository greatly enhances the target screening and biomarker validation toolset needed by today’s researchers.”
About Cytomyx Holdings
Cytomyx LLC, the core business unit of Cytomyx Holdings Plc, is uniquely positioned as a potential leader in the field of biomarker discovery and validation. The company has collected over 200,000 clinically important human tissue samples over the years and has over 100 customers who rely on Cytomyx’ tissue repository and clinical data for biomarker discovery and validation. With the complete of human genome project, the field of individualized medicine is increasing becoming a clinical reality. The centerpiece of individualized medicine is the discovery and validation of clinically important biomarkers that can improve significantly the diagnosis and treatment of various diseases. Cytomyx is using this extensive collection of high quality tissues to develop innovative products for biomarker discovery and validation.
Cytomyx is listed on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange (CYX.L). For more information visit www.cytomyx.com About OriGene Technologies
OriGene provides innovative technologies for large-scale gene function analyses, including its TrueClone Collection, the world’s largest collection (over 33,000) of expression-ready human full-length cDNA clones; its HuSH shRNA constructs against all human and mouse genes and its GFC-Transfection Arrays, arrayed sets of TrueClones suitable for high-throughput target validation and understanding of the causative role of genes in disease. More information about OriGene Technologies and their products can be found by visiting the company’s web site at http://www.origene.com.
Cytomyx Holdings Plc
CONTACT: Glenn Gershon, General Manager of Cytomyx LLC, +1-781-863-9720,or glenn.gershon@cytomyx.com; or Rich Hamer, Ph.D. Business Development ofOriGene Technologies, +1-240-620-0267, or rhamer@origene.com
