Team hopes to develop noninvasive imaging approach to identify cancer genotypes.
Newcastle University’s Northern Institute for Cancer Research are to use a panel of Horizon Discovery’s X-MAN™ (mutant and normal) human disease models in the hope of identifying novel gene-specific biomarkers that can be used in noninvasive cancer imaging.
The group will be led by the university’s Ross Maxwell, Ph.D., and Herbie Newell, Ph.D. The ultimate aim of the research is the development of new personalized cancer therapies tailored to individual patient cohorts.
The Newcastle University collaboration is the latest in a string of research and clinical diagnostic deals relating to the X-MAN technology that Horizon has signed over recent weeks. It provides what the company claims is the first genetically defined and patient-relevant in vitro models of human cancer.
Earlier in August the company negotiated a worldwide exclusive license to complementary patents owned by the University of Torino in Italy. The new IP covers the use of endogenous gene-targeted human disease models generated via homologous recombination methodologies in numerous aspects of targeted and personalized drug discovery. Horizon says that in the future all its X-MAN™ products and screening services will be provided with an extended license to employ these new inventions.
