NEW YORK – Syantra said Wednesday that it has received a grant from Alberta Innovates to further validate its early breast cancer detection test Onco-ID: Breast.
Alberta Innovates awarded C$600,000 (US$418,575) to Syantra through its Accelerating Innovations into Care (AICE) Market Access program. Syantra will use the funds to expand a clinical validation study of the test that is already underway with the Mays Cancer Center at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. Calgary, Alberta-based Syantra is also hoping to use the grant to submit data from this study in a regulatory filing with the US Food and Drug Administration and bring OncoID: Breast into the US market.
The two-year study with the Mays Cancer Center will be led by Jessica Treviño Jones, founder and director of the center's Cancer Risk Reduction and Education Clinic. Researchers are hoping to recruit 500 new patients, adding to participants who are already enrolled in the trial, and gather data on Onco-ID: Breast's ability to detect early-stage breast cancer in women with dense breast tissue and other risk factors.
In 2024, researchers from the University of Calgary and Cornell University received a $2.4 million grant from the US Department of Defense to clinically validate the Onco-ID: Breast test.
The DoD and AICE grants and the formation of a new scientific advisory board are helping Syantra move Onco-ID: Breast closer to market, Syantra CEO Rob Lozuk said in a statement. The Onco-ID: Breast test uses quantitative PCR to detect gene expression biomarkers and gauge cancer-associated signals from the body's immune system. The platform uses artificial intelligence to analyze these data and provides a positive or negative result for cancer.