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Cytox Expands Alzheimer's Disease Collaboration With AIBL

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) — Cytox said today that it has expanded its research collaboration with the Australian Imaging, Biomarker, and Lifestyle Flagship Study of Ageing (AIBL) to test new algorithms for identifying individuals most at risk for developing Alzheimer's disease (AD).

Cytox began working with AIBL in 2015 to refine its collection of single-nucleotide polymorphism biomarkers for mild cognitive impairment and AD.

Under the expanded alliance, Oxford, UK-based Cytox will assess the genetic risk for accelerated development of AD among pre-symptomatic and mild cognitively impaired people using its currently available technologies — which include its research-use-only variaTECT SNP array and SNPfitR interpretive software — and biobanked samples with matched longitudinal data provided by AIBL.

Cytox noted that the samples are from subjects with confirmed amyloid status, but who were either cognitively stable or experienced cognitive decline during the study period. Sample genotyping will be performed by Cytox's Australian genotyping services partner Ramaciotti Centre for Genomics.

"Through this collaborative work we foresee the data generated will help drug developers running clinical trials and sponsors of large cohort studies better stratify their subjects based on accelerated disease development risk," Cytox CEO Richard Pither said in a statement. "Over time, and as new treatments for AD make it to market, we plan to make the products and services that result from this collaboration available for routine clinical practice."

Earlier this year, Cytox began collaborating with the Mayo Clinic to further develop its polygenic risk scoring approach for AD diagnosis and prognosis.

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