Abstract
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Seattle-based Pacific Northwest Research Institute (PNRI) announced a research collaboration that will see world-renowned computational biologist David Galas, Ph.D., harness the molecular and clinical cancer data of Indivumed to better understand the complexities of cancer with the intent to develop individualized treatments for the disease.
Indivumed's global Cancer Database and Biobank contains more than 4.5 million biological data points associated with more than 600,000 discrete tumor, blood and urine samples obtained from approximately 25,000 cancer patients.
“Accessing Indivumed's global Cancer Database is a great opportunity for us to better understand how all the pieces of a cancer patient's biology fit together by detecting complex dependencies in this extensive data set,” said Dr. Galas, principal scientist at the Pacific Northwest Diabetes Research Institute.
“Understanding the biology of cancer from the patient data will provide invaluable insight into various cancers and how to treat it in the most precise manner.”
The Galas lab will apply to the data its proprietary computational biology method to develop a better understanding of cancer development and progression. It will be the first time the lab has used its technology for cancer research. To date the lab has successfully used its approach to analyze data ranging from RNA profiles in patients with autoimmune disease to childhood development.
“Allowing (Dr. Galas's) extremely innovative analytical platform to survey our Cancer Database will enable Indivumed and collaborative research partners to better understand the complexity of cancer and to translate their specific targets and biomarkers in the context of the clinical world of cancer,” said Hartmut Juhl, M.D., Ph.D., founder and CEO of Indivumed. “Overall, we hope to get closer to the development of a true precision medicine for cancer patients.”