NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Rules-Based Medicine and Psynova Neurotech said today that they have reached a milestone in their biomarker discovery alliance, and as a result RBM has made additional investments in Psynova, giving it a controlling interest in the firm.
The firms said that they had discovered and characterized a combination of protein biomarkers that demonstrated utility as an adjunctive aid in the differential diagnosis of schizophrenia. The biomarkers were validated in a study of 1,100 retrospective blood samples collected from patients who had an array of psychiatric disorders, including schizophrenia, major depression, bipolar disorder, and other conditions.
The companies did not say how much Austin, Texas-based RBM paid for the controlling interest in Cambridge, UK-based Psynova.
The firms hope to develop a test that can aid in the early diagnosis of schizophrenia and differentiation from bipolar disorder and major depression.