NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Dementia diagnostics firm Cytox said on Monday that it has formed a collaboration with the Cooperative Research Centre for Mental Health (CRCMH) and Edith Cowan University (ECU) to refine its collection of single-nucleotide polymorphism biomarkers for mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease.
Both CRCMH and ECU are members of the Australian Imaging, Biomarker and Lifestyle Flagship Study of Ageing (AIBL). According to Cytox, CRCMH focuses on the early identification and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, psychoses, and mood disorders. ECU leads AIBL's genetics program, discovering biomarkers, cognitive characteristics, and lifestyle factors that may determine subsequent development of symptomatic Alzheimer’s disease.
"We have already identified candidate single-nucleotide polymorphisms based on next-generation sequencing studies," Cytox CEO Richard Pither said in a statement. "This agreement will enable us to further refine SNP selection via NGS sequencing on highly characterized patient populations through access to selected subjects from the AIBL cohort."
Specific terms of the collaboration were not disclosed.