New England Venture Summit to Showcase Matrix-Bio

Matrix-Bio, Inc. is a featured startup company at the 8th annual New England Venture Summit on December 11 at the Hilton Boston Dedham. The cancer monitoring test uses the company’s VeraMarker™ metabolite profiling technology platform to detect the recurrence of cancer months and even years earlier than current diagnostics tests.

Sponsored by Young Startup Ventures, the 8th annual New England Venture Summit is the premier industry gathering connecting venture capitalists, angel investors, technology transfer professionals, senior executives of early stage and emerging growth companies, university researchers, and business incubators. The Summit attracts more than 500 attendees seeking investment opportunities and funding.

Matrix-Bio heads into the New England Venture Summit with substantial early stage success. In February, Matrix-Bio signed a global licensing agreement with Quest Diagnostics for the development of a clinical lab-developed blood test using metabolite profiling to detect breast cancer recurrence (BCR). A commercial launch of the BCR test is anticipated in early 2015.

Colon cancer is the most preventable, yet least prevented cancer. It also has a high rate of reccurrence. As part of his pitch, Matrix-Bio CEO Eric Beier will explain how the company’s VeraMarker™ metabolite profiling technology platform identifies the unique metabolite signature of cancer cells in blood serum samples, supporting early, more accurate cancer detection. Matrix-Bio is developing a suite of colon cancer tests, initially focusing on recurrence monitoring. The market for colon cancer monitoring tests is significant: three million CEA tests (the current test which often yields false positives or detects cancer recurrence late) are performed each year with an estimated total market of $450 million.

Matrix-Bio has licensed additional metabolite biomarker technology from the Purdue Research Foundation to evaluate the commercial potential of diagnostic tests for colon, esophageal, liver and pancreatic cancer; liver cancer in hepatitis C patients; and predicting preoperative chemotherapy effectiveness for breast cancer treatment.