NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Genome Diagnostics (GenDx) announced this week the launch of KimerDx, a spinout of GenDx focused on developing solid organ transplant tests for monitoring disease relapse and transplant rejection. The new firm is led by Doug Bost as managing director. He previously served as director of reagent development and instrument systems at Quest Diagnostics' Celera business.
Utrecht, Netherlands-based KimerDx also announced that it had won €25,000 ($34,200) from the Netherlands Genomics Initiative's Venture Challenge Fall 2013.
Mo Bio Laboratories has received ISO 9001:2008 certification for the design and manufacture of its reagents and kits for extraction, purification, and analysis of nucleic acid samples. Mo Bio is based in Carlsbad, Calif., and provides tools for soild, microbial, stool, and plant nucleic acid purification.
Arca biopharma, a Westminster, Col.-based biopharmaceutical firm, said this week that Laboratory Corporation of America has submitted an Investigational Device Exemption application to the US Food and Drug Administration for the planned companion diagnostic test for Gencaro (bucindolol hydrochloride), Arca's beta blocker and mild vasodilator being developed for atrial fibrillation. If accepted by the FDA, the IDE will allow the companion diagnostic test to be used in the planned clinical studies on the drug. According to Arca, it and LabCorp have developed the companion diagnostic to identify patient genotypes based on genetic variations of the beta-1 cardiac receptor.
Personalized Cancer Therapy (d.b.a. Perthera) announced its official launch this week. The firm, co-founded by George Mason University researcher Emanuel Petricoin, is offering customers access to "best-in class" molecular profiling assays for personalized cancer treatment. According to a recent article in ProteoMonitor, among Perthera's offerings are exome sequencing from Foundation Medicine; genomic, proteomic, and immunohistochemical profiling from Caris Life Sciences; and phosphoproteomic profiling from Theranostics Health, where Petricoin is a co-founder and chairman of the scientific advisory board.
In Brief This Week is a Friday column containing news items that our readers may have missed during the week.