If companion diagnostics (CDx) were people, they would be old enough to drink. The first CDx won FDA approval in 1998, when Dako Denmark (since acquired by Agilent Technologies) received authorization to market HercepTest. The immunohistochemistry (IHC) assay was designed to detect human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)...

A new device rapidly measures the efficacy of targeted cancer drugs. And, that could be a game-changer. The ability to figure out early if targeted drugs are working in individual patients is critical to the attempts to provide precision therapy. A description of the new device appears in the...

Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is a notorious death valley for drug discovery, with more than 100 candidate drugs having failed in clinical trials so far. The only approved drugs for this condition today just treat symptoms, and it affects millions of people. Many experts blame all these clinical disappointments on...

A research team headed by scientists at the University of California (UC), San Diego School of Medicine and the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research at UC San Diego has identified an enzyme involved in remodeling the plasma membrane of multiple cancer cell types that is critical to both survival...

It would be hard to find an area of health where the microbiome has not been implicated as a major player. The microbiome is there even before birth, influencing maternal-child health outcomes, and it lingers, in a fashion, even after death. In between, the microbiome contributes to health, maintaining...

Cancer diagnostics company Genecast has launched of ADPS BRAF, EGFR, JAK2 mutation test kits with the highest detection sensitivity. Currently available for research use only (RUO), the ADPS BRAF mutation test kit has 0.0001% detection sensitivity, which the company says is 100 times higher than other products available. Its...

Gilead Sciences is turning to gene sequencing to refresh its nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) pipeline. The company is collaborating with Renown Institute for Health Innovation (Renown IHI) to sequence 15,000 people with NASH and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. That data, and more, will then be compared to data from 40,000...

Interpace Diagnostics Group has acquired the BioPharma services business of Cancer Genetics for approximately $23.5 million, while concurrently the buyer will receive a $27 million investment from private equity firm Ampersand Capital Partners. The deals are designed to expand Interpace into a leading provider of oncology testing and services across...

Syndromic test developer iCubate has won FDA clearance for its ic-GN Assay, a qualitative, multiplexed, in vitro diagnostic test designed to detect and identify potentially pathogenic gram negative bacteria associated with bloodstream infection (BSI) and subsequent sepsis. The iC-GN Assay has been developed to detecs target DNA, and identify gram...

Treating psychosis by targeting a genetic mutation alleviates symptoms. That’s according to a new, proof-of-principle study that just may pave the way for precision medicine in psychiatry. The study, published in the July issue of Biological Psychiatry, is one of the first to treat psychosis based on genetics rather...