Austrian biomarker developer BIOCRATES Life Sciences AG (www.biocrates.com)
announced today that it entered a co-marketing agreement with
Canadian-based CHENOMX Inc (www.chenomx.com).
Both enterprises focus on a new and highly promising technology aimed at
generating a metabolic profile of the human organism that can be used to
monitor the effects of disease, nutrition, toxins, environment, or drugs
on an organism.
“The research focus of both BIOCRATES and CHENOMX is to identify and
quantify endogenous metabolites in body fluid or tissue samples and
develop them into powerful biomarkers”
“The research focus of both BIOCRATES and CHENOMX is to identify and
quantify endogenous metabolites in body fluid or tissue samples and
develop them into powerful biomarkers,” says Elgar Schnegg, MBA, Chief
Executive Officer of BIOCRATES. The proprietary, patent-protected
technology platform of BIOCRATES is based on mass spectrometry; CHENOMX
analyzes biological samples utilizing a patented and unique methodology
based on Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. Mass
spectrometry offers high sensitivity; NMR offers a broad metabolite
coverage. “The two methods produce complementary data sets with very
little overlap in results. Both tests can be run on the same samples
thus offering a more comprehensive profile,” explains Neil Taylor, Chief
Executive Officer of CHENOMX.
Recent technological advances have opened the door for the development
of novel diagnostic markers of unprecedented specificity and
sensitivity. In focusing on characterizing the body’s metabolite
profile, both BIOCRATES and CHENOMX have dedicated their activities to
the youngest addition to what may be referred to as the ‘omics’ quartet
of systems biology, i.e., genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and
metabolomics. The study of the body’s small-molecule metabolites—or
‘metabolomics’ in short—holds particular promise because it provides a
snapshot of the physiologic state of an organism as determined by its
genetic setup, regulation, protein abundance, and environmental
influences. Rather than attempting to elucidate the effect a particular
gene or protein may—or may not—have on the organism, metabolomics looks
at the very endpoints of how diseases or drugs influence the human body.
In joining forces, both companies will from now on be able to offer
complementary metabolomic analyses, service a large common customer
base, and jointly promote the use of each other’s services. BIOCRATES -
the only company in the field to have developed and brought to market a
kit product for metabolomics - will also work closely with CHENOMX in
evaluating and optimizing the performance of its kit products on its
partner’s instrumentation and software. Ultimately, the collaborative
research efforts between BIOCRATES and CHENOMX will enable diseases to
be detected early, assess disease severity more accurately, monitor
therapy more efficiently, tailor treatment to the individual needs of a
patient, and encourage the development of targeted medicines.
PIONEER software breaks down barriers in protein-protein interaction research