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Identification of new types of biomarkers and tracers for medical imagery
Key words: biomarkers, inflammation, cancer
Consortium
Christophe Van Huffel (Coordinator)
Companies:
Eppendorf Array Technologies • DNAVision • Eurogentec
GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals • IBA • Trasis •
University Laboratories:
FUNDP (Cell Biology) • UCL-IPC (Cell Genetics) • UCL (Molecular Imagery) • ULB (Experimental Medicine) • ULB (IRIBHM-IBMM) • ULg (Cyclotron Research Center) • ULg (GIGA) • UMH (Biomedical Chemistry) ULB- Institut Bordet
University hospital units:
UCL-St-Luc University Hospital (Rheumatology) • ULB-Erasme University Hospital (Pathology) • ULB-Erasme University Hospital (Nuclear Medicine) • ULg-CHU University Hospital (Nuclear Medicine)
General project objective
The KeyMarker project, which is scheduled to last 48 months, was launched in November 2006 and its objective is to identify new types of biomarkers and tracers for molecular imagery.
Biomarkers (in imagery) can be useful in all medical research and drug development phases. They facilitate earlier diagnoses and a better understanding of diseases and also help to accelerate the time it takes to develop safe and effective drugs.
Among imagery methods currently available commercially, positron emission tomography (PET) used in the project has rapidly established itself as the best quantitative diagnostic tool as regards cells.
The project is organised along the lines of an industrial discovery process and focused on two subjects identified as priorities in accordance with BioWin’s thematic matrix:
• first, inflammation, with one subject concerning type 1 diabetes and another concerning rheumatoid polyarthritis,
• secondly, cancer with one subject on breast cancer and another on cancer immunotherapy.
Several potential biomarkers have been identified by the partners and are currently being evaluated. In order to pursue the validation of biomarkers, we use the same method for each new candidate, in this instance, the preparation of several antibodies for a given candidate, followed by specificity tests on the “Tissue Micro Array” platform by immunohistochemistry. These tests make it easier to prepare better antibodies for validation in a preclinical animal model. Imagery tracers are currently being developed for two such antibodies for preclinical validation purposes. The radiopharmaceutical marking stages of the antibodies have been started and the objective is to obtain the first animal in vivo imaging results by the first quarter of 2009.
Budget and financing
The total research budget committed by all the partners over the total duration of the project is €7,200,000. The funding made available by the DGTRE in the framework of the clusters is €6,000,000.
Number of people involved and jobs created
The project uses an average of 45 full-time employees over the total duration of the project, including 22 who are financed by the cluster’s budget. At the current time, 7 PhDs or doctoral students, 1 graduate and 3 technicians have been recruited and it is planned to recruit 3 PhDs and 3 technicians when the project has reached a more advanced stage.
Conformity with the BioWin Health Cluster’s strategy
The KeyMarker consortium is composed of Walloon experts from different backgrounds and recognised internationally as being among the best university laboratories, drawn not only from the Universities of Namur, Mons, Louvain, Liège and Brussels but also from university hospitals, research centres and small, medium-sized and large enterprises from the biotechnological and pharmaceutical sectors.
KeyMarker makes it possible to pool the technical expertise necessary to complete this project and to put together a workforce which corresponds to that of a medium-sized undertaking specialising in biomarkers research and development.
Training
It is planned to train approximately 100 new technicians in the areas required by the KeyMarker project by 2010
Overall the KeyMarker project will generate in Wallonia 20 new jobs over the first 2-3 years and between 50 and 150 jobs after 5 years.
Contact:
Christophe Van Huffel
KeyMarker project coordinator
+32 496 183 259
keymarker@biowin.org
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