NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Horizon Diagnostics, a division of Cambridge, UK-based Horizon Discovery, said today that it will collaborate with the UK National External Quality Assessment Service on genetically defined reference standards for novel lung cancer biomarkers.
Horizon said that it has developed human genomic reference standards containing defined allelic ratios, which offer "an unprecedented level of control to the diagnostics industry" and will be used to minimize variability in FISH and immunohistochemistry-based testing.
UK NEQAS will receive an exclusive license to distribute the reference standards related to certain lung cancer biomarkers in the UK and Europe for the purpose of proficiency testing within its quality assessment program.
"Horizon's application of its gene editing technology in development of reference standards is ideally suited to diagnostics proficiency testing," Keith Miller, director of UK NEQAS, said in a statement. "We look forward to working with them as the field of cancer therapeutics moves increasingly toward a more personalized approach."