On-Q-ity secures Series B financing
Waltham, MA-based On-Q-ity, which focuses on novel circulating tumor cell capture and characterization, reports that it has secured $5 million in financing from its initial investors Mohr Davidow Ventures, Atlas Ventures, and Physic Ventures. In addition, the Board of Directors has appointed Michael T. Stocum, MS, as president and CEO of the company. Walt P. Carney, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer, will become Scientific Advisor. Stocum is president and founder of Personalized Medicine Partners, a firm that provides strategic and operational partnering support to biopharmaceutical and diagnostic product companies as well as contract research and laboratory service providers. Previously, he was with GlaxoSmithKline R&D, where he led alliances with various biomarker companies and directed the biomarker business strategy for several of GSK’s oncology agents. At Organon Teknika, Stocum led partnering efforts with biopharmaceutical companies to develop novel diagnostic assays coupled with therapeutics in the HIV and hepatitis space. Stocum began his career in the industry as a scientist at Organon, now Schering Plough. He currently chairs the American Association for Clinical Chemistry’s Personalized Medicine Advisory Group and is a member of the Personalized Medicine Coalition.
VolitionRX will test its cancer diagnostics platform
VolitionRX Limited (VNRX.OB), a life sciences company focused on developing blood-based diagnostic tests, says that is has signed a collaboration agreement with Abcodia, a specialist company spun out from University College London (UCL), under which Volition will gain access to Abcodia’s biobank of over five million human serum samples to validate its suite of NuQ™ tests. The samples, which were collected by scientists at UCL, will be used to validate Volition’s Nucleosomics™ technology for cancer diagnosis and to carry out the validations necessary to apply for regulatory approval in Europe (CE Mark) and to work towards FDA approval in the US.
Abcodia’s biobank includes samples taken each year for up to seven years, from more than 200,000 initially healthy volunteers, many of whom went on to develop a range of cancers and other conditions. Under the agreement, Volition will initially receive samples from a combination of pancreatic, colorectal and lung cancers, as well as control samples for non-cancer conditions such as Crohn’s disease, arthritis and serious trauma.
Compendia Bioscience and H3 Biomedicine to collaborate
Compendia Bioscience has signed a three-year licensing agreement with H3 Biomedicine, Inc. to provide their suite of Oncomine tools, a compendium of over 62,000 curated cancer genomic profiles with a sophisticated analysis engine and web applications for data mining and visualization. In addition, the companies will work together to mine data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) to discover novel therapeutic targets and biomarkers to support drug development.
GeneLink Biosciences sells GeneWize Life Sciences
GeneLink Biosciences, Inc. (OTCBB: GNLK), a consumer genomics biotech company, reports that it has completed the sale of the stock of its wholly owned direct-selling subsidiary GeneWize Life Sciences, Inc. (GeneWize) to Capsalus Corp. (OTCBB: WELL), operating in the health and wellness marketplace.
Iverson Genetic Diagnostics partners with Vanderbilt University
Iverson Genetic Diagnostics, Inc. has gained global exclusive commercialization rights for molecular diagnostics that will help physicians to assess breast cancer risk in women considering hormone replacement therapy during menopause from Vanderbilt University. Research suggests that estrogen metabolites represent one of several determinants of the risk of breast cancer
-Peter Winter
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