New Brunswick's BioSciences CommunityCompaniesResearch OrganizationsDevelopment OrganizationsTechnology transfer, allied industry and scientific associations Other Canadian BioSciences Associations and Commercialization Agencies Two New Brunswick organizations collaborate to improve outcomes in diagnostics of ovarian cancer
October 22, 2009Moncton, NB - BioProspecting NB Inc. (BPNBI) and the Atlantic Cancer Research Institute (ACRI) recently announced that they have established a formal collaboration to develop an early diagnostic for ovarian cancer based on BPNBI's unique, proprietary cancer management platform. The research and development program is being carried out at the ACRI facility in Moncton and the BPNBI research facility in Sackville. The unique fit between ACRI's work with cancer biomarkers and BPNBI's discoveries and development capabilities will allow the two to move closer to an early diagnostic test for ovarian cancer.
There are no approved early diagnostics for ovarian cancer. The program is capitalizing on recent findings by BPNBI that could lead to an entry-level diagnostic based on a simple blood test to measure the amount of a specific biomarker, since cancer tumours shed cells that circulate in the blood. Since the shed cells contain abundant amounts of the biomarker, it can be detected. Such an increase in the amount of biomarker in a blood test would suggest to the clinician that further testing is in order. The novel biomarker is overproduced in ovarian, breast and prostate cancers, and increases as the severity of the biomarker increases as the cancer progresses. The initial focus of the technology will be on the management of patients with ovarian cancer.
According to the research partners, which include company founder Dr. Jack Stewart and the CEO of the Atlantic Cancer Research Institute, Dr. Rodney Ouellette, a major diagnostic challenge with ovarian cancer is that there are no symptoms until very late stages, and that when ovarian cancer is detected in the first two of the four stages, a patient's chances of survival are usually 80 per cent or higher.
BioProspecting NB, Inc. is a private early-stage drug development company created in 2005 by Professor Jack Stewart and Paul Gunn following the discovery and development of a proprietary peptide, soricidin. Soricidin is the basis for BPNBI's targeted cancer management program focused on an ovarian cancer therapeutic and a companion diagnostic. The company works out of their state-of-the-art lab in Sackville, New Brunswick. The Atlantic Cancer Research Institute (ACRI) is a non-profit organization founded in 1998 and housed at the Dr. Georges-L. Dumont Regional Hospital in Moncton, New Brunswick. Thanks to its unique expertise, the ACRI has become a true centre of excellence in cancer research. Scientists are working with partners in Canada and around the world to discover the genetic origins of cancer and pursuing three main areas of development: early screening; enhanced diagnosis, and targeted treatment.
A recent study by BioAtlantech and its partners identified New Brunswick's most significant bio-medical research cluster in Moncton/Southeast NB, with economic activity and employment of $22 million, and 212, respectively, in 2007. These robust figures represent only discovery-based bioscience research in the public and private sector, and exclude health services and other health sectors, such as e-health. Southeastern New Brunswick is home to two significant universities.
For more information about this story, please visit:
http://nbbusinessjournal.canadaeast.com/journal/article/829601
http://www.atlanticcancer.ca/nucleus_newsletter.cfm
http://www.bioprospecting.ca/2009/10/bpnbi-and-acri-announce-a-formal-collaboration-to-devel/
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