Ensemble Discovery and Roche Initiate Research Collaboration to Apply new Diagnostic Technology to Optimize Cancer Therapy
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Ensemble Discovery Corporation has announced the initiation of a collaboration with Roche of Basel, Switzerland to apply Ensemble’s diagnostic technology to the optimization of selection of cancer therapy.
The collaboration will apply this technology (known as DNA-Programmed Chemistry™) to analyze combinations of members of the Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) family that are present in cancer tissues. The goal of the collaborative project is to create a sensitive test to detect receptor dimers in human cancer tissue samples.
The potential clinical benefit of the test is to select cancer patients who are most likely to respond to a particular therapy targeted against a member of the EGFR family. The particular combinations of EGFR dimers present in the cancer are believed to be a significant factor in determining the efficacy of drugs targeting the EGFR family.
The Ensemble test will correlate the EGFR family dimer pattern with efficacy of particular anti-cancer drugs in order to improve therapy selection based on an individual’s molecular constitution.
The EGFR family includes some of the most widely targeted molecules in modern cancer medicine. There are six drugs against this family on the market and several more in clinical trials. However, in each case, the drugs show activity in a subset of the patients in which they are currently indicated and the mechanisms of this partial efficacy are not well understood.
Ensemble’s test will be initially used to monitor breast cancer patients but could also have utility in other solid tumors such as colon and lung cancer.
“We are very pleased to enter into this collaboration with Roche,” said David J. Livingston, Ph.D., Senior Vice President, and head of the biodetection program at Ensemble Discovery. “The opportunity to collaborate with a global leader in both pharmaceuticals and diagnostics as well as pioneering anti-EGFR therapies, offers a unique opportunity to apply the collective expertise and experience for the development of our tests in cancer diagnosis.”
