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Tempus, UPenn Basser Center Partner on BRCA Study

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Tempus said today that it is collaborating with the Basser Center for BRCA at the University of Pennsylvania's Abramson Cancer Center with the goal of improving and personalizing treatment for patients with heritable BRCA mutations.

Launched in 2015, Tempus is building its business around offering genomic sequencing services and proprietary analytics to clinicians and clinical research groups.

Using machine learning and advanced bioinformatics, Tempus said it will work with Basser investigators to analyze existing molecular and clinical data of patients treated at the center. In a subset of cases, the company will also generate additional new genomic and transcriptomic data. The hope is that the study will uncover novel molecular features or patterns that doctors can use to improve patient outcomes.  

"In order to accelerate the pace of discovery, we need to be able to understand why certain patients positively respond to treatment and others do not," Basser Center Executive Director Susan Domchek said in a statement.

The BRCA effort follows another research collaboration between Tempus and UPenn, in which the firm is working with the Abramson Cancer Center to identify predictors of response to immunotherapies in patients with pancreatic cancer and melanoma.

The company has also announced several other collaborations in the first half of 2017, including with the University of Chicago, Duke University, the University of Michigan, Ohio's University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center, and the Mayo Clinic.