A Diagnostics & Imaging Week

Ciphergen Biosystems (Fremont, California) reported the signing of a research and collaboration agreement with the University of Kentucky (Lexington, Kentucky). The collaboration gives Ciphergen exclusive rights to license discoveries made during the agreement and is part of the university’s ongoing research in ovarian cancer.

Ciphergen will provide its suite of proteomic solutions (Deep Proteome, Pattern Track Process and ProteinChip System), designed for biomarker discovery and development of assays, to analyze clinical samples collected at University of Kentucky Healthcare. Researchers will analyze patients’ tumor cyst fluid and blood, looking for specific proteins to differentiate malignant from benign ovarian conditions.

The American Cancer Society (Atlanta) estimates that more than 22,000 women nationwide will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer this year and more than 16,000 will die from it.

iCAD (Nashua, New Hampshire), a provider of computer-aided detection (CAD) solutions, reported a technology partnership agreement with Applied Software (Burtonsville, Maryland), which conducts business as MagView.

Under the terms of the agreement, iCAD’s Second Look 300 and 700 CAD systems can be integrated with MagView’s mammography information software in an effort “to improve productivity and speed workflow,” the company said.

ICAD’s Second Look systems assist radiologists in the early detection of breast cancer during a mammography exam. MagView’s system tracks and reports mammography results using information obtained from the Second Look system.

LipoScience (Raleigh, North Carolina) said it has entered into a collaborative agreement with the Mayo Clinic (Rochester, Minnesota), to validate the clinical utility of LipoScience’s NMR LipoPro as a tool to measure cardiovascular risks.

“We are pleased to have the opportunity to be the first center to clinically assess and validate this technology,” said Joseph McConnell, director of the cardiovascular risk assessment section of the biochemical genetics laboratory within Mayo Clinic’s Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology. “If the findings are consistent with the published literature, we will include this test as part of our novel cardiovascular risk panel, which is offered to Mayo Clinic patients and to those served through our reference laboratory, Mayo Medical Laboratories.”

Privately held LipoScience provides diagnostic information to healthcare professionals using MR-based products and services. Its focus is the establishment of nuclear magnetic resonance diagnostics as a clinical standard of care.

As part of their assessment, Mayo researchers will determine the value of the NMR LipoProfile test independently and as a part of its Novel Cardiovascular Risk Marker Panel, a group of emerging risk factors used to aid physicians in assessments of their patients’ risks for developing cardiovascular disease or experiencing cardiovascular events, such as a heart attack or stroke.