The National Cancer Institute’s Early Detection Research Network recently awarded almost $17 million to Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center projects focused on colon cancer biomarker discovery, breast and ovarian cancer biomarker validation, and the ongoing coordination of the EDRN.

Founded in 1999, the EDRN brings together dozens of institutions to help accelerate the translation of biomarker information into clinical applications and to evaluate new ways of detecting cancer in its earliest stages and determine cancer risk.

The five-year awards will support:

The EDRN data management and coordinating center. Biostatistician Ziding Feng, PhD, a member of the Center’s Public Health Sciences Division, was awarded $10 million to lead the EDRN data management and coordinating center, which enhances communication and collaboration among EDRN researchers, coordinates biomarker validation studies, conducts statistical research and disseminates biomarker...

Idaho Technology Inc. launched the new RAZOR Simulant Training Kit (SIM 10) that provides functional training for RAZOR EX and RAZOR operators. The new SIM 10 Kit is formatted exactly like The 10 Target Screen Kit (The 10) and contains assays for yeast and Bacillus globigii (Bg) which are frequently used as powder or anthrax simulants in training exercises. The SIM 10 is available immediately for sale and allows trainees to practice sample collection and preparation, pouch loading, and operating the RAZOR EX or RAZOR BioDetection instrument including data analysis.

First responders receive calls to hundreds of white powder threats each year in the United States. Once a threat is established to be credible and the white powder is determined to be biological, first responders will use the sensitive RAZOR EX instrument with The 10 kit to reliably detect and identify harmful agents in 30 minutes. Since The 10 kit is the most frequently used kit, it is critical for first...

 IVD Technology is thrilled to announce that registration for our first-ever Virtual Tradeshow and Conference (VTC) is now open. This event, scheduled for September 28, will include all the networking, information-gathering, speaker presentations, and supplier shopping that characterize live tradeshows---but this event is fully accessible to you right here on your computer screen. No travel logistics or expenses required!

The VTC has been in the works here at our editorial offices for quite some time. It has been a labor of love, and we are perhaps most proud of the speakers we have lined up for you. Our headliner is none other than Alberto Guitierrez, OIVD director at FDA. Our remaining speakers include thought leaders from bioMerieux, Siemens Diagnostics, Gen-Probe, BioSearch, Quidel, and ARUP, as well as the University of Virginia.

For those of you...

CLC bio, AROS Applied Biotechnology, F. Hoffmann-La Roche, and Aarhus University Hospital - the Institute of Pathology and the Research Unit for Molecular Medicine, announced a collaboration to develop a solution for large scale use of formalin fixed, paraffin embedded (FFPE) tissue in molecular analyses.

The project goal is to develop a complete platform for selecting appropriate FFPE samples, choosing the optimal sequencing technology, and subsequently assembling and analyzing the high-throughput sequencing data. The main application areas will be molecular diagnostics research and re-analysis of pre-clinical trials where drugs have failed despite relatively high rates of positive responses. The project is budgeted to $5 million, half of which will be funded by the Danish National Advanced Technology Foundation.

Using the proposed platform, researchers will have access to more samples than can be collected in traditional fresh tissue biobanks. Equally important,...