NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Theranostics Health said today that it is collaborating with Duke University on a research effort for new prevention and treatment options for breast cancer under a recent grant from the Susan G. Komen Foundation.
The Rockville, Md.-based firm said that it has been collaborating with Duke investigator Victoria Seewaldt for the past year. That research formed the "underlying rationale and preliminary data in support of the research proposed" to the Komen Foundation, which is now providing Duke with a Promise Grant.
The specific amount of the grant was not disclosed by Theranostics Health, but it said that the foundation has provided more than $25 million in Promise Grants this year for breast cancer research.
Theranostics Health said that it will use its pathway mapping platform to measure signaling pathway activation in hundreds of key signaling proteins taken from breast tissue to assess response to chemoprevention in high-risk patients. It said that the information it obtains could be used to develop a rapid test to tailor a prevention agent to individual patients based on the biology of abnormal cells in each woman's body.
"If this project is successful, it will pave the way for quickly testing the effectiveness of prevention drugs as well as biological response to exercise," Seewaldt said in a statement.