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Iceland Genomics Corporation and ACLARA Collaborating on Cancer
Biomarkers
REYKJAVIK, Iceland, Dec. 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Iceland Genomics Corporation (IGC)
announced today that they have entered into an agreement with ACLARA
BioSciences (NASDAQ:ACLA) under which ACLARA will utilize its proprietary
eTag(TM) assays to analyze tumor samples from cancer patients provided by IGC
to validate candidate biomarkers and their utility as indicators of disease
progression and as predictors of a likely response of individual patients to
particular therapies.
Under the agreement, Iceland Genomics will provide to ACLARA tumor and blood
samples and blinded patient data, including treatment histories and outcomes.
ACLARA will test the samples with its eTag assays to help validate the
parameters measured as biomarkers. ACLARA will provide funding to IGC, and
will share the data from the study with IGC for incorporation into its
database.
Dana Hosseini, chief executive officer of Iceland Genomics, said, "We believe
ACLARA's eTag assays offer a unique view of the molecular processes driving
cell proliferation and tumor growth. We are pleased to be collaborating with
ACLARA, and helping to demonstrate the tremendous potential for eTag
technology. There is clearly a need for better methods to assess cancer
patients, both from a preferred treatment and ultimate prognosis perspective.
We look forward to the results of this study, and seeing how they correlate
with other measures used to evaluate these samples at Iceland Genomics."
The biomarkers under evaluation are proteins and protein complexes, and
importantly, their different functional or activation states that comprise
signaling pathways in cells. These pathways enable information transfer within
and between cells, and control such processes as cell growth, division and
death. When these pathways malfunction, the affected cells can become
cancerous, dividing uncontrollably. Several approved targeted therapies, such
as Iressa(R), Herceptin(R) and Avastin(R), and many others in development, act
on the proteins within these pathways. By measuring the targeted proteins and
pathways directly, ACLARA believes it can help physicians better determine
whether certain therapies are more appropriate for individual cancer patients.
"We are excited to be working with Iceland Genomics since the extensive
pedigrees of the Icelandic population, along with the detailed patient
histories and samples that IGC has collected, are a powerful resource that can
help facilitate answering critical questions in medicine, and oncology in
particular," said Sharat Singh, ACLARA's chief technical officer. "With
success, we look forward to a potentially broader collaboration with IGC, and
ultimately to the utilization of these biomarkers in clinical practice."
ACLARA's eTag assays are able to identify difficult-to-detect protein complexes
that can provide unique insights to the likelihood of particular patients to
respond to specific therapies. In addition, since eTag assays can utilize
formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded clinical samples, the standard format in most
pathology labs, this enables the analysis of both archived samples from initial
biopsies or surgeries as well as freshly collected materials.
About Iceland Genomics Corporation
Iceland Genomics Corporation (IGC) is a privately held cancer biology company
using an innovative 'clinical genomics' approach to understand the underlying
mechanisms of cancer, isolate and characterize new therapeutic targets for
cancer, assess outcomes of specific therapies in genetically defined
subcategories of cancer patients and optimize clinical trials for success. IGC
was incorporated in the State of Delaware in October 1998, and is the sole
owner of an Icelandic subsidiary called UVS. IGC is one of several
genomics-based biotechnology companies operating in Iceland and the only
company that solely focuses on cancer biology. In addition to its agreements
with the great majority of clinicians in Iceland actively engaged in treating
cancer, the IGC also has agreements with both major national hospitals and the
Icelandic Cancer Society (which is responsible for maintaining the National
Cancer Registry) as well as the Genetical Committee of the University of
Iceland.
About ACLARA
Founded in 1995, ACLARA is a biotechnology company working to provide
physicians and researchers products and services to make personalized medicine
a reality through its protein-based assay technology -- the eTag(TM) System.
ACLARA is dedicated to unlocking the power of pathway biology to accelerate the
development of next-generation targeted therapeutics, recognizing the most
appropriate patients for approved therapies and identifying the highly-
specific, protein-based biomarkers that will enable physicians to create truly
personalized treatment regimens for patients suffering from cancer and other
life-threatening disorders.
ACLARA is commercializing its proprietary eTag System to enhance and accelerate
drug discovery research and the preclinical and clinical development of
targeted therapeutics. ACLARA's technology may also enable the development of
highly specific, protein-based diagnostics capable of providing physicians with
a powerful tool for creating personalized treatment regimens for patients
suffering from serious and difficult-to-treat cancers. For more information on
ACLARA please visit the Company's web site at http://www.aclara.com/.
Trademarks
ACLARA BioSciences is a registered trademark, and eTag and the ACLARA logo are
trademarks of ACLARA BioSciences, Inc. Iressa is a registered trademark of
AstraZeneca, and Herceptin and Avastin are registered trademarks of Genentech,
Inc.
DATASOURCE: Iceland Genomics Corporation
CONTACT: Dana Hosseini, Chief Executive Officer of Iceland Genomics
Corporation, +354.525.3600,
Web site: http://www.aclara.com/