NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Protagen today announced a collaboration with Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals aimed at clinically validating diagnostic biomarkers for endometriosis.
The project is the third between the companies and builds on an endometriosis biomarker study performed last year. Protagen and Bayer initially partnered in 2008 to evaluate Protagen's UNIarray technology for patient stratification and predictive diagnosis of atrial fibrillation.
The current project will use the technology for the predictive diagnosis of endometriosis. Currently, the illness is diagnosed by laparoscopy.
Aside from endometriosis, the UNIarray technology is being applied to autoimmune diseases, chronic inflammatory diseases, and cancer. The firm's other partners include Biogen-Idec and SuppreMol, Peter Schulz-Knappe, chief scientific officer and executive vice president of diagnostics for Protagen, said in a statement.