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Issue link: https://clinicalomics.epubxp.com/i/853204
www.clinicalomics.com July/August 2017 Clinical OMICs 33 Human Longevity Joins Merck in Study to Identify Melanoma Biomarkers Human Longevity Inc. (HLI) has joined with Merck to identify treat- ment response biomarker signatures in patients with advanced melanoma, through a joint pilot project. HLI and Merck will focus on identifying biomarkers in patients with locally advanced or metastatic NRAS mutated cutaneous melanoma that show a preferential response to Mer- ck's oral small-molecule MEK1/2 inhibitor pimasertib. MEK1/2 are dual-specificity thre- onine/tyrosine kinases that have been shown to play key roles in the acti- vation of the RAS/RAF/MEK/ERK pathway and are often upregulated in a variety of tumor cell types. HLI said it will generate genomic sequencing data from the tumor and germline of clinical trial participants, then interpret and analyze the findings in the context of survival and other clinical data, using machine learning and analytical tools and expertise. Through the collaboration with Merck KGaA, HLI said it aims to ful- fill its mission of revolutionizing drug development and medical use of next generation therapeutics. "Our agreement with Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, will enable us to work together to discover novel insights that improve patient survival in melanoma," HLI CEO Cindy Col- lins said. "We believe our first pilot project is of great importance for soci- ety, and look forward to working with Merck, Darmstadt, Germany to impact the treatment of melanoma." The collaboration comes more than a year after HLI partnered with another pharma giant by agreeing to sequence and analyze up to 500,000 DNA sam- ples from patients in AstraZeneca clinical trials over 10 years. The value of the collaboration with the pharma giant and its global biologics R&D; arm MedImmune was also not disclosed. San Diego-based HLI is building what the company says is the world's largest database of genomic, pheno- typic, and clinical information, and has said that it is on track to have a database of 1 million integrated health records by 2020. HLI has sequenced approximately 40,000 high-quality genomes and is building a database of genomic and phenotypic integrated health records. Customers of HLI include pharma- ceutical and biotechnology compa- nies, life insurance companies, large academic medical centers, physicians and individuals. whole–genome sequencing will under- pin the future of cancer care—providing greater understanding of the disease and a fuller prognostic picture for patients. Illu- mina's variant interpretation and reporting software will enable us to deliver better in- sights from the 100,000 Genomes Project." GenePeeks Partners with The World Egg Bank Computational genomics company Gene- Peeks, which provides analysis for inherit- ed disease, announced a new partnership to provide its advanced genetic Precon- ception Screen service to The World Egg Bank, the longest operating egg donation bank in the U.S. Under the partnership, GenePeeks be- comes The World Egg Bank's exclusive provider of advanced genetic screening services. Prospective parents using the services of The World Egg Bank may now choose from donors identified as "Gene- Peeks Ready," saving significant time in their fertility journey. Completing the GenePeeks Preconception Screen before fertilization will help families better un- derstand their future child's risk of disease inheritance and provide them with critical genetic risk information to make a more informed donor selection. "Increasingly, we see growing aware- ness of genetic disease risk and demand for better safeguards," said Diana Thom- as, CEO of The World Egg Bank. "We have a deep commitment to bring advanced reproductive technologies to our fam- ilies and are excited to now add Gene- Peeks Preconception Screen to our suite of services." n solar22 / Getty Images man_at_mouse / Getty Images (continued from previous page)