Skip to main content
Premium Trial:

Request an Annual Quote

Epizyme, Eisai, Roche Partner to Develop CDx for Investigational Lymphoma Treatment

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) — Epizyme today announced a collaboration with Eisai and Roche to develop an in vitro, PCR-based companion diagnostic test to help treat genetically defined lymphomas.

The goal of the project, Epizyme said, is to identify lymphoma patients with non-wild type EZH2, including the Y641 mutation. In a study published in September in Nature Chemical Biology, Epizyme researchers demonstrated that lymphomas with genetic alterations of EZH2 require H3K27 methylation activity to proliferate, suggesting that EZH2 is a driving oncogene in these cancers and thus a potential therapeutic target.

Eisai and Epizyme are working together to develop an EZH2 inhibitor as a personalized therapeutic for patients, while Roche will develop a PCR-based assay to detect mutations in the gene to potentially select patients for therapy with the inhibitor.

Additional details of the partnership were not disclosed.

The Scan

Positive Framing of Genetic Studies Can Spark Mistrust Among Underrepresented Groups

Researchers in Human Genetics and Genomics Advances report that how researchers describe genomic studies may alienate potential participants.

Small Study of Gene Editing to Treat Sickle Cell Disease

In a Novartis-sponsored study in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers found that a CRISPR-Cas9-based treatment targeting promoters of genes encoding fetal hemoglobin could reduce disease symptoms.

Gut Microbiome Changes Appear in Infants Before They Develop Eczema, Study Finds

Researchers report in mSystems that infants experienced an enrichment in Clostridium sensu stricto 1 and Finegoldia and a depletion of Bacteroides before developing eczema.

Acute Myeloid Leukemia Treatment Specificity Enhanced With Stem Cell Editing

A study in Nature suggests epitope editing in donor stem cells prior to bone marrow transplants can stave off toxicity when targeting acute myeloid leukemia with immunotherapy.