publication date: Jun 22, 2012
|
author/source: Alto Marketing Limited
The
largest ever genomic study of relapsed acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL), the
most common malignant disease of childhood, will fund Population Genetics
Technologies Ltd to identify the genetic factors in resistance to treatment by
carrying out a multi-year analysis of thousands of DNA samples from relapsed
ALL cases.
The
IntReALL consortium of 23 research teams, led by Vaskar Saha, Professor of
Paediatric Oncology at The University of Manchester, will gather DNA across
Europe, Japan, Israel and Australia from children who have relapsed after
treatment for ALL. With funding from IntReALL's EU FP7 grant Population
Genetics, creator of innovative methods for population-scale genetic analyses
and biomarker discovery, will study the resulting biobank using its
GenomePooling
TM workflows to identify and validate associations between genetic
risk factors and treatment efficacy.
Goals
are to understand which patients are suited for reduced toxicity treatments and
also to provide a genetically stratified basis for randomised controlled
studies of potential new treatment agents.
ALL
affects 4 per 100,000 children per year in Europe but intensive combination
chemotherapy with stem cell transplantation has improved survival from under
20% in the 1970s to over 80% today. However treatment is complex and prolonged
and it is not understood why some children do not respond.
Explained
Professor Vaskar Saha: "This study presents a unique but highly complex
opportunity to interrogate a large dataset of this malignant disease.
Population Genetics has shown its expertise in the field of large population
gene association studies which would probably otherwise be too costly and
error-prone for clinical researchers seeking to test hypotheses".
Alan
Schafer, CEO of Population Genetics, commented: "We are pleased to be working
with the IntReALL consortium on this important multi-year study which will
allow us to demonstrate that our population-scale association study techniques
can be applied to complex solid lymph node tumours, in addition to the other
areas of disease genetics in which we currently work".
About Population Genetics
Population Genetics Technologies Limited, on the Babraham Research Campus
near Cambridge, UK, has developed novel approaches for genetic analyses and
biomarker discovery, derived from the work of its co-founder, Nobel Laureate
Sydney Brenner, on the rapid identification of genetic variants in large target
populations. Working with researchers and clinicians the company uses its
expertise and proprietary techniques to identify variation and trait
association information which can then be used as a target for the development
of clinical trials, diagnostics and treatment in humans as well as agronomic
applications.
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