Goals of Funding are Earlier Detection and Better Characterization of Cancer
AUSTIN (October 10, 2007) — Rules-Based Medicine, Inc. (RBM), the leading multiplexed biomarker testing laboratory for the life sciences industry, announced today that the National Cancer Institute (NCI) has awarded the company a Phase I/Phase II “Fast-Track” Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Contract valued at $1,126,627. The contract will fund the development of 50 new quantitative, multiplexed immunoassays for cancer-related proteins to be added to the automated RBM Human Multi-Analyte Profile (HumanMAP®) platform. With the addition of these tests, RBM’s HumanMAP® will be expanded to more than 100 quantitative immunoassays for cancer biomarkers (as part of an existing panel of nearly 300 immunoassays) available for fast, sensitive, reproducible and cost-effective use by the worldwide community of cancer researchers.
“Detecting cancer at the earliest stage when therapeutic intervention is most effective is the ultimate objective of this collaboration with NCI,” said T. Craig Benson, CEO of Rules-Based Medicine. “To accurately measure cancer-related proteins in a reliable and cost-effective way is vital to NCI’s research initiatives. We are pleased and honored to have been selected as NCI’s partner in this important project for advancing cancer research. We believe our technology and expertise in developing blood tests for this research will be an essential tool in this endeavor.”
RBM will develop the tests for cancer biomarkers of special interest to NCI under the SBIR Topic 238: “Automated, Multiplexed Immunoassays for Rapid Quantification of Low-Abundance Cancer-Related Proteins”. The NCI is the Federal Government’s principal agency for cancer research and training. It has an annual budget of over $4.6 billion and supports thousands of researchers in intramural and extramural programs, including over 1,300 clinical trials a year. RBM expects that many of these researchers will take advantage of the availability of these new cancer biomarker tests by submitting their clinical samples for analysis on the HumanMAP® platform.
This project is supported with Federal Funds from the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, under Contract No. HHSN261200700037C.
About NCI
The National Cancer Institute (NCI) is a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), one of eight agencies that compose the Public Health Service (PHS) in the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). NCI coordinates the National Cancer Program, which conducts and supports research, training, health information dissemination, and other programs with respect to the cause, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of cancer, rehabilitation from cancer, and the continuing care of cancer patients and the families of cancer patients. More information is located at www.cancer.gov.
About Rules-Based Medicine
Rules-Based Medicine (RBM) provides comprehensive protein biomarker products and services centered on its Multi-Analyte Profiling (MAP) technology. Its service platform (RodentMAP® and HumanMAP®) provides pre-clinical and clinical researchers with reproducible, quantitative, multiplexed immunoassay data for hundreds of proteins cost-effectively in multiple species, and from a small sample volume. The Company also offers innovative and proprietary ex vivo testing systems such as TruCulture™, the first fully-closed, reproducible whole blood culture system. RBM is actively developing multiplex diagnostic tests to detect the presence of complex diseases and conditions in areas of unmet medical need such as neuropsychiatry, nephrology, immunology and cardiology. More information about RBM is located at www.rbmmaps.com.