Alliance to Develop Cancer Diagnostics

Large-scale studies being planned are designed to produce genetic signatures for different types of cancer that could then be used to develop diagnostic tests. The studies are the result of an alliance between Institut Curie (Paris, France) and Affymetrix, Inc. (Santa clara, CA, USA).

This alliance will link the GeneChip microarray technology of Affymetrix with the Institut Curie's state-of-the-art techniques for collecting tumor samples. The studies will be conducted at the translational medicine division of the Institut Curie. The first two projects will focus on identifying important genetic markers for cancer progression, including markers to help predict breast cancer relapse and to determine the likelihood of tumors in the eye spreading further.

Over the past 15 years, the Institut Curie has developed an extensive library of high-quality tumor samples, using an advanced "snap-frozen” sampling method. Researchers there believe the exceptional quality of the samples should produce more accurate and reliable diagnostics. In addition, the Affymetrix platform allows scientists to conduct cancer research and diagnostic test development on the same microarray technology.

Each translational medicine study will use the GeneChip microarrays to analyze the DNA sequence and gene expression for 250 tumor samples, providing scientists with a genetic fingerprint, or biomarker, of each disease. This fingerprint can help doctors identify the disease in other patients, predict how it may progress, and assist them in choosing the right treatment for breast and eye cancer.

"This strategic alliance with Affymetrix is very timely for the Institut Curie translational research programs,” noted Jean Paul Thiery, director of Curie's translational research department. "We have developed new bioinformatics tools to analyze complex RNA expression profiles of a large series of well-annotated tumors.”





Related Links:
Institut Curie
Affymetrix