The UK government-backed Technology Strategy Board has granted £1.16m to Oxford Gene Technology (OGT) for the development of a tumour profiling assay based on targeted panel enrichment and next generation sequencing (NGS).
OGT will use its expertise in the design of genomic services to develop a flexible tumour profiling assay and will be offered as either a testing service or by the sale of an analysis ‘kit’ that could be used in-house by existing clinical laboratories.
The new assay is expected to facilitate the design of personalised treatment strategies for cancer and minimise the use of untargeted, aggressive primary treatments.
The assay will detect mutations at informative loci, forming part of an integrated workflow that translates test results into clear clinical decisions.
In addition, OGT will use its experience in data interpretation to adapt its powerful CytoSure Interpret Software to analyze the results provided by the new assays.
The investment is part of a five-year programme in stratified medicine research and development involving over £60m of government funding.
Led by OGT, the project is a partnership with the Universities of Southampton and Birmingham, including Salisbury and Birmingham NHS Regional Genetics Laboratories, with the latter as Birmingham United Molecular Pathology in collaboration with the Department of Cellular Pathology at University Hospitals Birmingham.
The partners will provide further clinical and technical expertise, as well as validation of the assay in a clinical setting using their own sequencing platforms.
Results from the molecular profiling assay will be integrated into CIS Healthcare’s novel ChemoCare diagnostic module, thereby providing clinicians with information to make treatment decisions.