Scientists at GE Global Research (NYSE: GE), and researchers at Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY) today announced a significant advancement in cancer research resulting from the two companies’ collaboration formed in October 2007.
Working together, the research teams have developed tissue-based biomarker technology that for the first time can simultaneously map more than 25 proteins in tumors at the sub-cellular level, an important step in the development of personalized and more effective cancer treatments. GE Chairman and CEO, Jeff Immelt, made the announcement this morning during a news conference at GE’s Healthymagination Showcase in New York.
Currently, a diagnosis of cancer and the decision of which therapy to prescribe are based on the histology of the tumor and, in some cases, the expression of just one or two biomarkers inside the patient’s tumor. With this new molecular pathology technology developed in GE’s Biosciences laboratories, researchers can now look at a visual map of the tissue sample, seeing a cancer cell’s comprehensive biomarker signaling pathway, and the interplay of signaling networks inside the tumor. To date, the new technology has been tested successfully on colon and prostate cancer tissue samples and is believed to be applicable to all types of cancer.
Mapping a tumor’s complex biomarker network could allow researchers involved in drug discovery and the clinicians making treatment decisions to identify the most effective cancer therapies for patients, while avoiding those that are not as effective, saving time, money and providing a better patient experience.
“This new approach to molecular pathology unlocks information that has been hidden from doctors,” said Mark Little, senior vice president and director, GE Global Research. “It was just two years ago that researchers at GE and Lilly set out to discover key protein biomarkers that would predict the likelihood that a medication would be effective in treating certain cancers. Our new mapping technology is designed to bring new therapies to market faster and to make sure that the right patients get the right medicines.”
GE researchers with specialties in biology, bioinformatics, optics, fluidics, chemistry and mechanical engineering have built a prototype system capable of staining, washing and re-staining tissue samples for study under a digital microscope. The system combines image analysis of cancerous cells and structures with GE’s patented visualization tools to provide a color map of protein concentrations within the sample.