NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Arizona State University's Bioedesign Institute today said that it is partnering with Thermo Fisher Scientific's Life Sciences Solutions business on a US government-funded contract to develop molecular diagnostics for radiation exposure.
ASU said that the project has received $9 million in federal funding and will use Life Technologies' qPCR instruments to develop a multi-gene assay panel for measuring radiation exposure.
The funding from Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) will support the second phase of a collaboration the partners launched last year. They will use the funding announced today to optimize the biomarker assay and platform workflow in advance of seeking regulatory clearance from the Food and Drug Administration.
No rapid high-throughput system for measuring radiation dose absorbed by individuals within a large population has yet been approved by the FDA, ASU said, noting that Thermo Fisher will lead the FDA submission process.
Under the project, the Biodesign Institute has developed a biomarker discovery core competency that uses next-generation sequencing and gene selection algorithms that can reproducibly identify and select biomarkers, Biodesign Senior Scientific Project Manager Kristin Gillis said in a statement.
"Our process includes quality control standards and can be applied to many other medical challenges for research, diagnosis, or development of a therapeutic," Gillis said.
The Biodesign Institute was one of 11 initial project teams working to create such a test through the BARDA-funded program, and currently there are six teams continuing these projects, ASU said.