Clinical OMICS

JUL-AUG 2017

Healthcare magazine for research scientists, labs, pathologists, hospitals, cancer centers, physicians and biopharma companies providing news articles, expert interviews and videos about molecular diagnostics in precision medicine

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www.clinicalomics.com July/August 2017 Clinical OMICs 43 Covance Opens Dedicated Companion Diagnostics Lab Covance Drug Development has opened a dedicated companion diagnostics lab- oratory in Morrisville, NC, that is designed to capitalize on the combined strength of Covance's drug development expertise and parent LabCorp's commercializa- tion capabilities. "We've opened this dedicated companion diagnostics laboratory to help cli- ents develop and commercialize therapies based on precision medicine," said Sue Maynard, VP corporate communications for LabCorp. "This is a milestone in the Covance and LabCorp commitment to this area, part of the company's end-to-end capability for parallel development of clients' targeted therapies and companion diagnostics." The Morrisville facility is 37,000 square feet, of which 60% consists of lab space. Twenty-five people are based at the laboratory, which will be used primarily for the development and optimization of new companion diagnostic tests for Covance-developed therapies. Covance's therapeutic areas include oncology and immuno-oncology, CNS, infectious disease and inflammation. "The facility employs a wide range of technologies used to evaluate diagnostic markets. These technologies include, but are not limited to, anatomical pathology, as well as molecular and soluble-based marker analysis," Maynard said. The new lab has a focus on oncology immunotherapy, but not exclusively: "Other areas of activity have included therapies for non-small cell lung cancer, colon cancer and certain types of breast cancer, and their compan- ion diagnostics. This experience puts the company squarely at the forefront of precision medicine," Maynard said. Covance and LabCorp Diagnos- tics have worked to develop drugs and their companion diagnostics for more than 20 years—including about 75% percent of companion diagnostics available today. Last year, the company participated in more than 60 companion diagnostic programs supporting 145 clinical protocols, Maynard said. The new laboratory is part of a multi-use facility that includes a genomics and molecular pathology laboratory to support clinical trials and diagnostic assay development, as well as manufacturing facilities for diagnostics materials and testing components. The site also includes a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) lab that houses the first NMR spectrometer approved by the FDA to identify and quantify concentrations of lipoproteins and small molecule metabolites. Covance was acquired by LabCorp for approximately $6.2 billion in a deal com- pleted in February 2015.—Alex Philippidis Children's Hospital Los Angeles Launches Comprehensive DNA and RNA Pediatric Cancer Panel Investigators at Children's Hospital Los Angeles have launched OncoKids, a next-generation sequencing–based panel specifically designed for pediatric cancers. OncoKids is intended to guide the diagno- sis and treatment of a child's cancer based on the genomic alterations specific to the child's tumor. The panel was developed by a team comprising laboratory geneticists, oncologists, and pathologists. "We could not simply modify a panel used for adult cancers because the ge- nomic profiles of childhood cancers are so very different," said Timothy Triche, M.D., Ph.D. "OncoKids was designed based on the need we saw in our own clin- ics, with our own patients." The OncoKids panel—developed with Thermo Fisher Scientific on its Ion Torrent S5 sequencing platform— detects mutations, gene amplifica- tion, and gene fusions for a full range of pediatric cancers including leuke- mias, bone and soft tissue tumors, and brain tumors. It requires only a small amount of DNA and RNA (20 ng) iso- lated from fresh, frozen or formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue, so that retro- spective analysis of primary and recurrent tumors can be performed. The combined DNA and RNA assay can replace many of the single gene, or more narrowly focused, next-generation sequencing-based pan- els, as well as a variety of fluorescence in situ hybridization assays, which will save time and preserve tissue. n Debster88 / Wikipedia

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