NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) — Diagnostics developer Med BioGene has received a CA$307,000 ($262,000) grant from the Canadian government to develop biomarkers to help physicians detect and manage cardiovascular disease, the company said Friday.
The grant came from the National Research Council Canada Industrial Assistance Program.
MBI, based in Vancouver, BC, said it is working with CVD patient samples provided by the University of Ottawa Heart Institute to confirm its biomarkers.
Company President and CSO Nathan Yoganathan said he expects genetic biomarkers for CVD to be "an invaluable tool for periodic screening" for high-risk patients, or patients with early, mid-, or late-stage CVD.
Yoganathan said such a diagnostic would be a "first step" for cardiologists, who may then pursue more specific tests on patients found to be at risk. The test also could be used to prevent patients not at risk from undergoing “unnecessary and invasive testing," Yoganathan said.
MBI said it uses its gene expression-profiling system to develop and validate biomarkers for cardiovascular disease, lymphoma, and leukemia.