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NanoString, Brigham and Women's Hospital Collaborate on Genomics-based Cancer Diagnostics

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – NanoString Technologies announced after the close of the market on Monday a collaboration with Brigham and Women's Hospital aimed at accelerating genomic biomarker discoveries into clinical cancer diagnostics.

Leveraging NanoString's Elements reagents for use on the company's nCounter platform, the partners will develop assays to detect gene expression, copy number variations, and fusions from various tumor samples, NanoString said. Brigham and Women's researchers will evaluate and analyze a repository of patient-derived tumor tissues to identify gene signatures and gene expression profiles that typify a specific tumor type. NanoString said the work is expected to hasten the development of validated diagnostic tests that could improve clinical decisions made in the treatment of cancer patients.

NanoString will have the right to license diagnostic content developed resulting from the collaboration. Further financial and other terms were not disclosed.

"This collaboration is designed to support not only the discovery of the underlying biology of cancer, but the rapid development of clinical tests," Jeffrey Golden, chairman of Brigham and Women's pathology department, said in a statement. "Together we believe we will improve our ability to diagnose, provide better prognostication, improve treatment stratification including qualifications for clinical trials, and conduct biomarker discovery and validation."

Scott Rodig is the lead investigator at the hospital on the project and is joined by Brigham and Women's colleagues Deborah Dillon, Jon Aster, Michael Kluk, and Neal Lindeman.