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LAURENTIAN UNIVERSITY LICENSES CANCER TREATMENT MANAGEMENT TOOL

Jan. 19, 2011, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

“Despite what most people think, chemotherapy only works in a fraction of cancer patients,” says Laurentian University's Dr. Amadeo Parissenti. The RNA Disruption Assay (RDA), a chemotherapy treatment management tool, can help oncologists determine when chemotherapy is not effective, thereby limiting its negative side effects and, allowing the physician to switch to a different form of treatment sooner.

Laurentian University has licensed the technology behind the RDA to the Ontario Company Rna Diagnostics Inc. to bring this new medical diagnostic tool to breast cancer patients around the world. Rna Diagnostics Inc. CEO Dr. Kenneth Pritzker hopes to have RDA on the market within two years. “I know for a patient with cancer, two years is a long time. However, we must ensure this is extremely reliable before being released to the market.”

The RDA technology is already bringing attention to Rna Diagnostics Inc. The company won the top prize in the 2010 Sanofi Pasteur Healthcare and Biotechnology Venture Challenge (HBVC) based on the strength and promise of the RNA Disruption Assay.

Dr. Amadeo Parissenti
Photo credit: Laurentian University

Dr. Parissenti made the discovery which led to the development of RDA with his research associate Dr. Baoqing Guo of the Sudbury Regional Hospital when they were conducting clinical trials. They noticed that in some patients chemotherapy administration resulted in marked degradation of tumour ribonucleic acid (RNA), indicating a positive response and tumour destruction.

The research is continuing. “I want to know if this diagnostic tool applies to other cancers and other common cancer drugs.” Earlier this year, the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research awarded Dr. Parissenti a grant worth $381,874 to continue his research into how chemotherapy agents induce the degradation of RNA. This work is being conducted in collaboration with Dr. David Maclean of the Northern Ontario school of Medicine.

The Ontario Partnership for Innovation and Commercialization (OPIC) provided funding to protect the RDA intellectual property. This funding was a critical step in the commercialization of the technology. OPIC thanks the Ministry of Research and Innovation for financial support of the OPIC network and this project.

For information on other licensing and commercialization opportunities at Laurentian University please contact: Gisele Roberts, Business and Technology Transfer Officer, Laurentian University .

For inquires re Rna Diagnostics Inc. please contact John Connolly VP Corporate Development Tel: 416-985-4361

OPIC is a network of 7 Ontario universities: Brock, Lakehead, Laurentian, Nipissing, Ryerson, Trent and the University of Ontario Institute of Technology, working together to increase technology transfer, commercialization and entrepreneurial culture.

For more information about OPIC please contact: Karen Zavitz, Managing Director, OPIC

Presented by Ontario Partnership for Innovation and Commercialization
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