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Project Leader
Devanand Pinto
Phone: 902-426-0558
Fax: 902-426-9413
Email: Devanand.Pinto@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca
Biomarkers for Human Health and Wellness
The aim of the research proposed here is to use IMB’s functional genomics expertise for the discovery and preliminary validation of prognostic biomarkers in collaboration with key clinical specialists in the Capital District Health Authority (CDHA). Key to the process is active collaborations with clinical experts to first define the deficiencies in current technologies for staging and monitoring treatment of the disease and then to focus on the most relevant clinical samples. Thus far, we have initiated three cancer biomarker proof-of-concept studies to demonstrate the ability to isolate circulating tumor cells (CTCs) from blood (Douglas/Pinto/Drucker), to discriminate between two stages of non-small cell lung carcinoma (Douglas/ Pinto/Karakach/Xu/Bethune and Ridgway), and to discriminate between benign and malignant form thyroid nodules (Pinto/ Douglas/ Karakach/ Melanson/ Singh/ Hart/ Taylor/ Trites/ Bullock/ Shahnavaz). In addition, a project using proteomic and metabolomic profiling of partial urinary tract obstruction (Walter/Pinto/Doucette (Dalhousie)/McLellan (IWK) is underway. The involvement of IMB in the Atlantic Path initiative (Karakach) is an exciting new development. All of these studies involve clinical partners, have the potential to leverage external funds through granting agencies, involve multiple institutes (IMB, IIT, BRI, IBS) and have significant commercialization potential. It is anticipated that these, and other collaborations, will be the basis of a strategic partnership between IMB and CDHA that will ultimately result in co-commercialization of the most promising biomarkers.
In general, the clinical partners will carefully select samples to be subjected to IMB’s comprehensive suite of metabolomic, proteomic and transcriptomic analysis techniques.
Based on these initial studies, preliminary biomarkers that demonstrate increased sensitivity and specificity over current technologies and that correlate with the etiology of the disease will be selected for further development. This would involve pursuing additional funding through joint applications with our clinical partners for larger-scale validation studies.
