NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – French diagnostics firm Theradiag and its collaborators in South Korea have been awarded a three-year grant from the European Commission to develop tests for rectal cancer based on microRNA and messenger RNA signatures, the company announced yesterday.
Theradiag is working with researchers from the Asan Medical Center and CbsBioscience to validate a set of circulating miRNAs and tissue-based mRNAs as biomarkers of the disease in a study of more than 300 patients, with the goal of combining the tests into a single diagnostic. The partners have been awarded €1.3 million ($1.4 million) for their effort through the EC's Eurostars-2 program, of which Theradiag will receive €300,000.
The Eurostars award "represents another milestone in our development in the field of rectal cancer," Theradiag CEO Michel Finance said in a statement. "It will help strengthen the work already accomplished in this area, and will potentially open up new international markets to us."