The UCLA group, led by Scott Binder at the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the Geffen School of Medicine, will work with CMD using routinely prepared formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded material. Binder's team will also provide clinically validated patient samples for the validation phase of the project.
The test is aimed at helping pathologists discriminate between atypical pigmented moles and malignant melanoma, CMD and UCLA said.
Matt Watson, CEO of CMD, said that if his firm can "gain CLIA certification in early 2006, and [its] development efforts proceed as planned, [CMD hopes] to have this test available to physicians and patients by the middle of 2006."
Separately, CMD this week announced plans to offer a DNA-based microarray service to identify types of influenza. The company is a wholly-owned subsidiary of CombiMatrix, which formed the company last May.