Diagnostics Companies Get European Grant for Bladder Cancer

(James. J. Caras, National Science Foundation)

Molecular diagnostics companies MDxHealth SA in Liege, Belgium and NovioGendix B.V. in Nijmegen, Netherlands have received a $1.1 million grant from Eurotrans-Bio to advance their bladder cancer program. NovioGendix is a spin-off company from Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre (RUNMC).

Eurotrans-Bio is a European Commission initiative to encourage cross-border research and development between small companies and academia working in the biotech industry. Jan Groen, CEO of MDxHealth says the funding provides the companies with “resources to investigate further the unique biological indicators and patterns seen in bladder cancer derived from patient samples from the existing collaboration of NovioGendix with RUNMC.”

MDxHealth and NovioGendix will apply the funds over the next two years to discover and validate biomarkers for the prediction of tumor progression into the muscle in developing invasive stage of bladder cancer. The companies expect to use DNA methylation technologies, DNA sequencing, and RNA-expression profiles on clinical samples collected from bladder cancer patients in the RUNMC urology department. Such predictive markers will guide treatment decisions for more aggressive bladder tumors.

Bladder cancer is one of the most common cancers, with 60 to 80 percent of survivors experiencing recurrence of the disease. National Cancer Institute reports more than 70,000 new cases of bladder cancer in the U.S. alone in 2010, with nearly 15,000 deaths.

Read more: Health System, Biotech Collaborate on Diagnostic Biomarkers

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