Press Release
October 4 2007
NIST Awards $2 Million to 20/20 GeneSystems for Innovative Tumor Profiling Technology Layered Arrays to Advance Personalized Medicine -- 20/20 GeneSystems, Inc. (“20/20”) announced today that the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has awarded the company nearly $2 million under its Advanced Technology Program (ATP) to advance development of its layered array technology for tumor profiling. "Personalized" medicine is a strategy for narrowly targeting therapies to individual patients based on the particular genetic characteristics of their disease. New diagnostic technologies are needed, however, before personalized medicine can become routine. Available techniques for tumor analysis typically fail to meet a critical need, which is to simultaneously analyze the visible characteristics of the tumor together with the underlying biomarkers or gene expression patterns. 20/20 intends to overcome this barrier through a novel strategy called Layered Expression Scanning-Diagnostic (LES-Dx). In this technique, biomarkers from the tissue section are accurately 'mapped' to a layered array which is then read using sophisticated microscopes and digital imaging techniques resembling computed tomography (CT) scans. This provides the medical team with critical information needed for optimal treatment selection. “LES, when fully developed with the ATP support, is expected to significantly improve the response rates of several FDA approved targeted cancer therapies, saving thousands of lives and hundred of millions of healthcare dollars,” said 20/20 CEO Jonathan Cohen. LES-Dx is the subject of three U.S. patents exclusively licensed to 20/20 from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). It is being co-developed by 20/20 with a team from the National Cancer Institute. About the Advanced Technology Program The NIST ATP program supports only revolutionary technologies that address top national priorities with large societal benefits. Applications undergo rigorous scientific are business review by diverse panels of reviewers.
|