NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Singulex today announced a public-private partnership with the Dutch Technology Foundation to create the Biomarker Development Center (BDC).
Headed by Rainer Bischoff, a professor at the University of Groningen, the center is tasked with accelerating the development and validation of clinical biomarkers. The BDC academic partners will use Singulex's research-use-only Erenna Immunoassay System, based on the firm's Single Molecule Counting technology, to quantify ultra-low level biomarkers, which often circulate at femtogram per milliliter concentrations. They will select, co-develop, and validate the biomarkers for potential use in clinical applications, Singulex said.
BDC, funded in part by the Dutch Technology Foundation, along with industry partners, received a grant to develop and validate candidate biomarkers specifically for type 2 diabetes, Alzheimer's disease, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Bischoff is joined in the initiative by researchers from Radboud University Medical Center in Nijmegen, Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, and University Medical Center Groningen.
"This strategic alliance furthers our mission to improve healthcare by applying innovative tools in disease areas that would be better served by more quantitative and more disease-specific diagnostic offerings," Paul Wheeler, VP of life science sales and marketing at Alameda, Calif.-based Singulex, said in a statement.
The center expects to begin testing available biomarkers later this year, Singulex said.