Compendia Bioscience awarded $1.3 million in SBIR Fast Track funds

02-Sep-2010 - USA

Compendia Bioscience, Inc. announced the award of $1.3 million in SBIR Fast Track funds to incorporate micro-RNA data and analyses into the Oncomine platform.

Cancer is a highly complex disease in which all of the causes and effects are not well understood. In recent years a new type of non-coding RNA molecule — micro-RNA — has been identified as an important contributor to cancer development, progression, and metastasis, creating a need for cancer researchers to easily access and query this new data type.

Despite the growing accumulation of micro-RNA profiling data in a range of cancer-related studies, it is nearly impossible for a cancer biologist to survey the differential expression of an individual micro-RNA or micro-RNA signature across all published datasets, or to integrate knowledge about micro-RNA expression patterns with other relevant biological phenomena such as gene expression, copy number, and mutation data.

“The role of microRNAs in cancer is becoming increasingly clear and pharma/biotech are taking notice both from therapeutic and diagnostic angles. Several major pharma companies have indicated strong interest in querying and analyzing microRNA data from cancer patients,” said Chief Executive Officer Daniel Rhodes, Ph.D. “We are thrilled to be able to meet this need with this newly awarded SBIR grant.”

This project will systematically capture, curate, and analyze the novel micro-RNA data type in a standardized way and provide the data and analyses in an interface that promotes ongoing inquiry. This effort will require significant technical innovation to capture, organize, and present data that is both biologically and technically complex in a way that is rapidly comprehensible to the cancer biologist.

https://www.bionity.com/en/news/122329/compendia-bioscience-awarded-1-3-million-in-sbir-fast-track-funds.html