FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
INCOGEN Receives Additional Funding for Cancer Diagnostics Research
Williamsburg, VA. April 19, 2004
INCOGEN has announced that it received a two-year, $2 Million award from the
National Institutes of Health – National Cancer Institute to continue its
research program in cancer diagnostics. The research program involves a close
collaboration with scientists from the College of William and Mary and clinical
researchers from the Eastern Virginia Medical School.
The award is a Phase II follow-on to a previous grant which INCOGEN received
from the NIH a year ago. The Phase I award provided funding for INCOGEN and its
academic collaborators to develop a pilot project in the analysis of data
obtained from surface-enhanced laser desorption ionization (SELDI) mass
spectrometry. This approach may provide alternative, highly accurate methods for
screening for cancers that currently require invasive diagnoses, such as
prostate cancer or leukemia. SELDI was developed by the Fremont, CA-based
company Ciphergen®,
who makes and distributes the instruments used for this research.
“We are delighted to continue working on this important project. The Phase II
funding will allow us to continue to take advantage of the world-class expertise
in data analysis and experimental research at William and Mary, and also the
state-of-the-art proteomics and SELDI work at Eastern Virginia Medical School,”
said Dr. Maciek Sasinowski, INCOGEN Founder and CEO. “INCOGEN came to Virginia
two-and-a-half years ago to foster collaborations among academic institutions in
the Commonwealth and to act as the ‘glue’ between computational science and life
science experts. Our current work with W&M and EVMS is a terrific success story
of just how fruitful this type of collaboration can be.”
Under the award, both institutions will act as subcontractors to INCOGEN. The
data will be produced at EVMS and analyzed at both INCOGEN and W&M. The goal of
the Phase II research is to develop a ready-to-use, clinical diagnostic software
package, based on INCOGEN’s highly successful Visual Integrated Bioinformatics
Environment (VIBE) software. The new software product will be distributed to
clinical researchers involved in diagnostic work.
About INCOGEN:
INCOGEN, Inc. provides state-of-the-art software and industry-leading
professional services to scientists involved in pharmaceutical, agricultural and
biotechnology research. The suite of INCOGEN tools includes GenePort®, a
web-browser-based information mining and management portal; VIBE™, an extensible
bioinformatics visual programming and workflow management platform; and HDFR™
and Magelan™, two image analysis software packages. INCOGEN Professional
Services provide scientists with industry-leading technological expertise to
assist researchers with every phase of design, development and implementation of
their informatics infrastructures. The company is committed to supplying the
research community with tools to optimize the analysis, mining, and management
of life science data.
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