NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Medley Genomics has been awarded a Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) from the National Institutes of Health to develop a software platform that uses next-generation sequencing data to personalized cancer treatments.
Called OncoGenomic Heterogeneity Software, the platform is designed to analyze NGS data to estimate intratumor heterogeneity (ITH) with greater specificity, accuracy, and reproducibility than current approaches. A better understanding of a cancer patient's ITH can help guide treatment decisions, according to Medley.
With the roughly $300,000 in funding, Medley aims to establish the optimal conditions for using its genomic heterogeneity software in primary breast tumors, as well as evaluate its use in formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded breast tumor tissue versus fresh/frozen tissue. The company will also update the software to be compatible with cloud-based computing and HIPAA-compliant systems.
If this work is successful, Medley said it intends to apply for Phase II SBIR funding to retrospectively and longitudinally evaluate the use of software with NGS data — and potentially single-cell sequencing data — to identify and characterize the ITH in primary tumors to inform early, targeted interventions.
Medley — a spinout of Brown University — previously received $250,000 in seed funding from Slater Technology Fund and has been looking to raise as much as $1.5 million in additional angel funding.