Money from CTMM will be used by the company along with an international group of partners.
Immunicon received a four-year grant from the Center for Translational Molecular Medicine (CTMM) to develop a test to detect minimal residual disease in the blood of acute myeloid leukemia patients. In current methods, a bone marrow aspirates is required to test for the disease.
“This grant funds the development of Immunicon’s capture, detection, and FISH reagents, which we believe will help bridge the gap between current cancer treatment methods and more patient-friendly techniques,” says Byron D. Hewett, CEO and president of Immunicon.
Immunicon will work with an international consortium of partners under the CTMM grant, including Skyline Diagnostics, Crosslinks, Flexgen, and Atos Origin. Academic partners include the Institute for Medical Technology Assessment, VU Medisch Centrum, Universitair Medisch Centrum Utrecht, Edinburgh University, and Erasmus Medisch.
“The challenge is to identify differences in the leukemia or multiple myeloma tumors to assess and select the optimal treatment strategy for individual patients,” remarks Bob Löwenberg, professor of mematology at Erasmus. “To produce meaningful results, a large amount of genetic data has to be correlated with multiple clinical parameters.”
