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Medical diagnostics company secures $800 K from investors

While the company's head office is in Toronto, it was research at Sudbury's Advanced Medical Research Institute of Canada (AMRIC) that helped create Rna Diagnostics. Sudbury's Dr.
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Dr. Baoqing Guo, a research associate with Advanced Medical Research Institute of Canada at Health Sciences North, shows clinical tissue samples, stored in liquid nitrogen, used for cancer treatment research. File photo.

While the company's head office is in Toronto, it was research at Sudbury's Advanced Medical Research Institute of Canada (AMRIC) that helped create Rna Diagnostics.

Sudbury's Dr. Amadeo Parissenti led a team that developed a laboratory test – called the RNA Disruption Assay test – that can help patients with breast cancer tailor their treatment based on their genetic makeup.

RNA stands for ribonucleic acid, large biological molecules that perform vital roles for the coding, decoding and regulation of genes.

Parissenti and his research team at Health Sciences North analyzed breast cancer tumour tissue samples, and discovered there is a correlation between the amount of RNA degradation and complete tumour destruction after treatment.

If a tissue sample had high-quality RNA after several rounds of chemotherapy, it meant the treatment was not very effective.

But a tissue sample with degraded, or disrupted RNA, after those same rounds of chemotherapy, meant the patient would be a good candidate to continue the therapy, since the tumour was being destroyed.

Those patients with high quality RNA could forgo the toxic side effects of continuing chemotherapy, and opt for surgery, radiation therapy, or other treatments instead.

Thanks to its Sudbury roots, Rna Diagnostics has developed an ongoing relationship with the Northern Centre for Advanced Technology (NORCAT), which facilitated meetings with investors.

Pritzker said the latest round of funding will help the company bring the RNA Disruption Assay test to market, and will also facilitate the development of a lab based at NORCAT's complex on Maley Drive.

“It's our intent to establish the lab, and it would serve patients across the world,” Pritzker said.

He said he expects to have a lab up and running by mid-2016.

The laboratory would support around four researchers at first, who would test cancer tissue samples that would help direct patients' treatment plans.

“As we grow the number will expand greatly,” Pritzker said.

He said the lab could accommodate more than 25 employees when operating at full capacity – and would be able to test samples from around the world.

Pritzker said he expects the company to generate $150 million in revenues by 2020 or 2021, by providing specialized lab tests for clients – primarily hospitals – around the world.

“What we do see happening is that it would be seen as accepted as a standard worldwide,” he said. “The Sudbury facility will be the prototype and the central facility, but there will be other facilities elsewhere in the world. The economic benefit to Sudbury will be very substantial.”

Pritzker said he hopes Rna Diagnostics can help kickstart a strong commercialization cluster in the biomedical sciences.

AMRIC has plans to convert the former St. Theresa's School on Walford Road into an expanded research space.

The expansion would provide an additional 14,000 square feet of research space to the relatively young institute.

While laboratories for pure research are welcome, Pritzker said they should function in parallel with commercialization labs, which work a bit differently due to the sensitive nature of corporate patents.

“The access needs to be restricted,” he said. “The protocols are much more stringent.”
As for the RNA test, Pritzker said a number of recent clinical trials have supported its effectiveness at determining how a cancer patient might react to respond to chemotherapy.

A paper published in the journal of Breast Cancer Research and Treatment, compared the RNA Disruption Assay test to other breast cancer diagnostic tools.

Rna Diagnostic's test emerged as the most promising technology, of the half dozen tested in the study.

Another scientific paper, published in the journal of Endocrine-Related Cancer, described a study a pharmaceutical company called Armour Therapeutics did in conjunction with Rna Diagnostics.

Armour Therapeutics is developing a prostate cancer drug called AT-001. The study found the RNA Disruption Assay test is also effective at determining the effectiveness of their drug for prostate cancer treatment.


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Jonathan Migneault

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