NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Source BioScience today announced a collaboration with Illumina and Barts Cancer Institute for the development of an integrated genetic test for characterizing cancer tumors at the molecular level.
The goal is to develop the test to improve cancer diagnosis and treatment outcomes for patients.
The collaboration calls for the use of DNA analysis technology from Illumina for the genetic profiling of cancers and the building of a bank of information on every tumor type. Barts will provide samples from its tissue bank, and Source BioScience will develop the test.
Richard Henfrey, associate director of regional marketing in Europe for Illumina, said in a statement that the collaboration will use the firm's HiSeq and MiSeq platforms.
UK-based DNA Source said that while a number of pathology tests for assessing patient response to drugs exist, "the current methods are costly, complex, time-consuming, and not commonly available to clinicians."
Financial and other details of the collaboration were not disclosed.