Israeli system id’s the gene mutations driving your cancer
Inside the NovellusDx lab in the Jerusalem Bio-Park, a team of 35 biologists, engineers, mathematicians and physicians recreates the genetic maps of real human individuals with cancer.
It’s not a research project but a personalized medical tool.
The NovellusDx team analyzes the cancer-driving mutations in each patient’s DNA to deliver actionable intelligence to oncologists, helping them choose the right cancer therapy for each and every one.
NovellusDx CEO Haim Gil-Ad explains that although genomic sequencing already is starting to be performed for cancer patients and is likely to become standard, sequencing can reveal tens or even hundreds of mutations but cannot annotate the exact eight to 12 driver mutations that are actually enabling the tumor to grow.
The Israeli company is filling this gap in knowledge.
“Every patient is different,” Gil-Ad tells ISRAEL21c. “Two 35-year-old women with breast cancer, living in the same place and having similar physical features, will have totally different oncogenic maps.”
NovellusDx uses genomic data sent to its lab by email – no actual patient samples are needed – to recreate the individual’s genetic map on a unique biochip.
The company’s proprietary technology measures the activity of signaling pathways to assess the oncogenic action of known and unknown mutations and their response to cancer drugs. It also provides a hierarchy of driver mutations and mutation “cross-talk.”
Read More: Israel21C