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A big week for Mayo Clinic and Individualized Medicine.

Mayo Clinic and Cancer Genetics Inc. have teamed teamed up to launch OncoSpire Genomics, a joint venture with the singular goal of improving cancer care by discovering and commercializing diagnostic tests that leverage next-generation sequencing.

The start-up company will be based in Rochester, Minn., and will focus on discovering and commercializing new biomarkers for cancer. Cancer Genetics has committed to contributing $2 million in capital in the first year, with the possibility of contributing up to $6 million during the next three years. Mayo will contribute in-kind with sequencing and laboratory resources, clinical and research expertise, and other operational resources. Mayo Medical Laboratories and Mayo Clinic's Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology will help bring OncoSpire discoveries to patients at Mayo Clinic and elsewhere.

A scientific review committee will identify projects within the Center for Individualized Medicine's Biomarker Discovery Program for commercial development through OncoSpire. Initial focus areas will include hematological and urogenital cancers, and potentially other cancers, as selected by the scientific review committee.

Biomarkers help physicians and providers understand cancers (and many other conditions) within the individual patient. Blood sugar in diabetes care is a common example. As next-generation sequencing helps us unlock many mysteries of cancer, biomarkers will lead to better prognoses and directed therapies. In some cases, such as pre-cancerous polyps, biomarkers can help physicians screen for the likelihood for cancer before the disease ever materializes.

Read the full release.

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