A Diagnostics & Imaging Week

Cepheid (Sunnyvale, California), a molecular diagnostics company, reported receiving Phase II funding from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) of the National Institutes of Health for a Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Grant entitled, "Sample Processing Cartridges for Rapid PCR TB Detection." The amount of the funding was not disclosed.

Cepheid's academic partner for this program is Dr. David Alland, of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ). Cepheid and UMDNJ previously reported a program for development of a PCR cartridge that detects the presence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and also predicts drug resistance, in about one hour.

The program is being supported by FIND (Geneva), a non-profit organization partnered with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The NIAID funding will complement these efforts by focusing on development of sample collection devices and proprietary nucleic acid dyes, quenchers, interpretive software and other technologies associated with commercial implementation of a six-color GeneXpert system.

The goal of both programs is to develop a rapid test with accuracy equal to or better than current methods, thus shifting the burden from culture techniques which require weeks to months to generate the same results.

"Our GeneXpert system enabled the recent attainment of the first ever moderate complexity categorization for a PCR-based assay. This gives us confidence that we can deliver, for use in developed and developing countries alike, rich-featured molecular diagnostics assays that provide medically actionable results in real time," said David Persing, MD, PhD, Cepheid's chief medical and technology officer and principal investigator on the award.

In other grant awards:

• A $5 million grant from the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation is expected to accelerate Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center's (both Seattle) progress toward early detection of breast and prostate cancer through an innovative "proof-of-principle" project that will set new standards for the field.

Early cancer-detection research strives to identify specific biomarkers — tumor-derived or responsive proteins in the blood — that can indicate the presence of cancer long before symptoms begin, when the opportunity for cure is highest.

The Allen Foundation's grant will fund science at the Hutchinson Center that seeks to demonstrate that biomarkers can be correlated with the presence of cancer in a mouse, yielding a blueprint for future discoveries relevant to early cancer detection in humans.

"The Allen Foundation's landmark gift will enable us to reach toward our vision of detecting cancer at its earliest stages using a simple and highly accurate blood test," said Lee Hartwell, PhD, president and director of the center. "Identifying biomarkers in a mouse model, which is genetically predictable in the laboratory, leverages our ability to find cancer early in humans."

The resulting knowledge ultimately could shift the emphasis of cancer care away from treatment of advanced disease and toward early detection of cancer in persons known to be susceptible or just starting to develop the disease, Hartwell said.

• DMS Imaging (Fargo, North Dakota), a member of the DMS Health Group, reported that it has signed a three-year agreement with Amerinet (St. Louis, Missouri), which serves more than 37,000 healthcare organizations nationwide. DMS Imaging will provide Amerinet members with mobile diagnostic imaging shared services and interim rentals of mobile imaging products.

The agreement, effective Aug. 1, includes MRI, computed tomography (CT), positron emission tomography (PET), PET/CT, nuclear medicine, cardiac cath lab and ultrasound services.

• VivoMetrics Government Services (Ventura, California) reported that the LifeShirt ambulatory physiologic monitoring system is now offered on the Federal Supply Services Contract, which includes GSA and VA schedules, to all federal U.S. Government organizations.

The LifeShirt is a machine-washable garment with embedded sensors that measure respiration, ECG, body position and activity and correlates these objective measures with subjective patient input.

The GSA/VA Schedules help federal agencies serve the public by negotiating on behalf of all federal government to provide best value for acquisition services and process management. By adding the LifeShirt to the GSA/VA Schedule, U.S. government agencies can now purchase the product with a simple purchase order.

VivoMetrics describes itself as "the world leader in ambulatory physiologic monitoring devices for first responders, pharmaceutical clinical trials and academic research."