Seattle-based research institute partners with German company to develop cancer treatments
The Pacific Northwest Research Institute, based in Seattle, has partnered with a German computational biology company to develop individualized cancer treatments.
The collaboration with Indivumed GmbH, in Hamburg, Germany, is led by David Galas, MD, a computational biology expert, the company said in a statement.
Indivumed has a global cancer database and biobank with more than 4.5 million biological data points that reflect 600,000 discrete tumor, blood and urine samples from more than 25,000 cancer patients. It contains unique patterns of biomolecules such as RNA, DNA and proteins as they existed when they were in a human body.
Pacific Northwest and Galas hope to harness this data and analyze it through Galas’ proprietary computation method that deciphers the biological complexity of human development and disease.
"Accessing Indivumed's global Cancer Database is a great opportunity for us to better understand how all the pieces of a cancer patient's biology fit together by detecting complex dependencies in this extensive data set," Galas said in a statement. "Understanding the biology of cancer from the patient data will provide invaluable insight into various cancers and how to treat it in the most precise manner."
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As a Senior Writer for TriMed Media Group, Katherine primarily focuses on producing news stories, Q&As and features for Cardiovascular Business. She reports on several facets of the cardiology industry, including emerging technology, new clinical trials and findings, and quality initiatives among providers. She is based out of TriMed's Chicago office and holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from Columbia College Chicago. Her work has appeared in Modern Healthcare, Crain's Chicago Business and The Detroit News. She joined TriMed in 2016.