In Special Recognition of the work of The Stand Up To Cancer-Lustgarten Foundation Pancreatic Dream Team and in honor of Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month
SEATTLE, Nov. 11, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- NanoString Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:NSTG), a provider of life science tools for translational research and molecular diagnostic products, today announced a new myeloid gene expression collaboration to expand the company’s immuno-oncology portfolio. The Company, in conjunction with Lisa Coussens, Ph.D., Professor & Chair, Developmental & Cancer Biology Department, OHSU Knight Cancer Institute, Portland, Oregon, is developing two new myeloid focused research panels for the study of the innate immune response to cancer. An early version of the Myeloid Innate Immunity Panel will be made available to Dr. Coussens and her collaborators, as well as the Stand Up To Cancer – Lustgarten Foundation Pancreatic Dream Team members in an exclusive, advance offering during the month of November in conjunction with Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month, after which the panels will be available to all researchers.
“I am thrilled to be partnering with NanoString to create these novel myeloid-focused panels,” said Coussens. “We anticipate that through these efforts, we will enable a more complete understanding of the local interplay between myeloid immune components and neoplastic cells in tumors.”
Myeloid cells play a key role in modulating activities fundamental to cancer development and are known to have both tumor promoting and anti-tumor functions. As myeloid cells are affected by and can have an impact on many types of cancer therapy, they are broadly applicable within immuno-oncology research. A heightened awareness of the importance of the mechanisms of immunotherapy resistance has brought the myeloid immune response into focus as a key modulator of the adaptive immune response. NanoString is currently working with Coussens on her efforts in understanding recruitment of myeloid cells into neoplastic tissue, and the subsequent regulation exerted by those myeloid cells on neoplastic cells and other cells within dynamic tumor microenvironments.
The Myeloid Innate Immunity panel includes approximately 700 genes representing all major categories of myeloid cells, enabling quantitative evaluation of heterogeneous myeloid cell populations based on recruitment, differentiation, maturation status, and functional activities. The panels are optimized to work across a range of sample types including fresh frozen tissues, formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) samples, peripheral blood mononuclear cells and cell lysates.
“It has been a pleasure to collaborate with Dr. Coussens and we are excited to share this work with the broader community of cancer researchers. The Myeloid panel is a collection of genes that encompass the many characteristics of the innate immune response that will help advance cancer research with additional applications in infectious disease as well,” said Joseph Beechem, Ph.D., senior vice president of R&D at NanoString. “These myeloid panels are highly complementary to NanoString’s 770 gene PanCancer Immune Profiling Panel, which is by-design, more T-Cell focused. The myeloid panel will provide an orthogonal view of the regulation of the immune response.”
Dr. Coussens is chair of the Department of Cell, Developmental & Cancer Biology at OHSU. Her research is focused on revealing the role that immune cells play in regulating solid tumor development. Coussens is a principal investigator on the Stand Up To Cancer – Lustgarten Foundation Pancreatic Cancer Convergence Dream Team in which her work is focused on clinical evaluation of immune-based therapies in pancreatic cancer. She has received numerous awards, including: the V Foundation Scholar Award, the AACR-Women in Cancer Research Charlotte Friend Memorial Lectureship, and the 2015 recipient of the 13th Rosalind E. Franklin Award from the National Cancer Institute.
This is the latest in a series of research partnerships NanoString has with global leaders in immuno-oncology. NanoString and Coussens will be presenting independently at the upcoming Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) conference taking place Wednesday, November 9 through Sunday, November 13 at the Gaylord National Hotel & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland.
Results from NanoString’s previously announced collaborations with Merck and MD Anderson Cancer Center will also be presented this week at AMP and SITC.
- Title: Beyond PD-L1 IHC: A Gene Expression Based Test in development for anti-PD-1 response on the nCounter® Dx Analysis System
- Speaker: Dr. Matthew Marton, Director of Genomics and Companion Diagnostics, Merck
- Date/time: Wednesday, November 9th, 8 AM - 9 AM.
- Title: The increasing clinical relevance of predictive biomarkers in cancer immunotherapy: can we afford to move forward without them?
- Speakers: Alessandra Cesano, Alex Rueben (MDACC) & Jared Lunceford (Merck).
- Date/time: Saturday, November 12th, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM.
About the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute:
The Knight Cancer Institute at Oregon Health & Science University is a pioneer in the field of precision cancer medicine. The institute's director, Brian Druker, M.D., helped prove it was possible to shut down just the cells that enable cancer to grow. This breakthrough has made once-fatal forms of the disease manageable and transformed how cancer is treated. The OHSU Knight Cancer Institute is the only National Cancer Institute-designated Cancer Center between Sacramento and Seattle – an honor earned only by the nation's top cancer centers. It is headquarters for one of the National Cancer Institute's largest research collaboratives, SWOG, in addition to offering the latest treatments and technologies as well as hundreds of research studies and clinical trials. For additional information on the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute visit www.ohsu.edu/xd/health/services/cancer or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
About the Stand Up To Cancer Initiative
Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C) raises funds to accelerate the pace of research to get new therapies to patients quickly and save lives now. SU2C, a program of the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF), a 501(c)(3) charitable organization, was established in 2008 by film and media leaders who utilize the industry’s resources to engage the public in supporting a new, collaborative model of cancer research, and to increase awareness about cancer prevention as well as progress being made in the fight against the disease. As SU2C’s scientific partner, the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) and a Scientific Advisory Committee led by Nobel Laureate Phillip A. Sharp, PhD, conduct rigorous, competitive review processes to identify the best research proposals to recommend for funding, oversee grants administration, and provide expert review of research progress. Current members of the SU2C Council of Founders and Advisors (CFA) include Katie Couric, Sherry Lansing, Lisa Paulsen, Rusty Robertson, Sue Schwartz, Pamela Oas Williams, Ellen Ziffren, and Kathleen Lobb. The late Laura Ziskin was also a co-founder. Sung Poblete, Ph.D., R.N., has served as SU2C’s president since 2011. For more information on Stand Up To Cancer, visit www.standup2cancer.org.
Contact:
Jane E. Rubinstein
Vice President, Communications
jrubinstein@eifoundation.org
About the Lustgarten Foundation
The Lustgarten Foundation is the largest private foundation dedicated to funding pancreatic cancer research. The Foundation supports research to find a cure for pancreatic cancer, facilitates dialogue within the medical and scientific community, and educates the public about the disease through awareness campaigns and fundraising events. Since its inception, the Foundation has directed more than $125 million to research and assembled the best scientific minds with the hope that one day, a cure can be found. Thanks to private funding, 100 percent of every dollar donated to the Foundation goes directly to pancreatic cancer research. For additional information, please visit www.lustgarten.org.
About NanoString Technologies, Inc.
NanoString Technologies provides life science tools for translational research and molecular diagnostic products. The company's nCounter Analysis System has been employed in life sciences research since it was first introduced in 2008 and has been cited in more than 1,300 peer-reviewed publications. The nCounter Analysis System offers a cost-effective way to easily profile the expression of hundreds of genes, proteins, miRNAs, or copy number variations, simultaneously with high sensitivity and precision, facilitating a wide variety of basic research and translational medicine applications, including biomarker discovery and validation. The company's technology is also being used in diagnostics. The Prosigna® Breast Cancer Prognostic Gene Signature Assay together with the nCounter Dx Analysis System is FDA 510(k) cleared for use as a prognostic indicator for distant recurrence of breast cancer. In addition, the company is collaborating with multiple biopharmaceutical companies in the development of companion diagnostic tests for various cancer therapies, helping to realize the promise of precision oncology.
For more information, please visit www.nanostring.com.
The NanoString Technologies logo, NanoString, NanoString Technologies, nCounter, 3D Biology, and Prosigna are registered trademarks of NanoString Technologies, Inc.
Contact:
Doug Farrell
Vice President, Investor Relations and Corporate Communications
DFarrell@NanoString.com
