NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – CytoTest, the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU), and the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine today announced they have signed a cooperative research and development agreement aimed at prostate cancer.
CytoTest will collaborate with the Center for Prostate Disease Research (CPDR) to develop new methods for the diagnosis and prognosis of prostate cancer. CPDR — a US Department of Defense Prostate Center of Excellence program of USU's surgery department, administered by the Jackson Foundation — has discovered genetic and biochemical biomarkers that may have use for the early diagnosis of, and as prognostic indicators for, prostate cancer.
CytoTest will provide reagents, instrumentation, manufacturing, scale-up, biomarker screening services, and assay construction capabilities to advance the biomarkers for use in clinical diagnostic testing, the partners said. They added that the collaboration marries CPDR's discovery and translational research abilities with CytoTest's genomic medicine expertise and diagnostic assay development infrastructure.
CytoTest President and CEO Joseph Cheng said in a statement that his firm and CPDR have had a working relationship for some time. "Leveraging CPDR's latest discoveries with CytoTest's expertise in cytogenetic analysis and our resources for validating and optimizing genomics-based diagnostic assays, this CRADA is an exciting milestone for CytoTest,' he said.
CytoTest is based in Rockville, Md.and provides cytogenetics products and services.