NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Xceed Molecular, a developer of gene expression analysis systems, said Wednesday that it will work with scientists at the University of Florida in a collaboration aimed at developing a gene expression signature for differentiating early-stage bladder cancer from other conditions.
Through the company’s Strategic Collaborator Program, UF researchers Charles Joel Rosser and Steve Goodison, in the school’s Urology and Surgery departments, respectively, will perform initial verification and validation of a signature that could be used to differentiate the cancer from other conditions using voided urine samples.
The collaborators will test around 700 samples from patients previously identified to have either cancerous or non-cancerous bladder tumors in order to verify that the gene expression signature can be used to distinguish the two groups.
Xceed will run the first 100 samples on its Ziplex System in its Toronto labs. Xceed also will provide the university with a Ziplex System, which it will use to study the rest of the samples. If the collaboration validates the signature, Xceed and the university will pursue more clinical testing to validate the signature for use in managing patients.
Financial terms of the agreement were not released.