Beckman Coulter, Fullerton, Calif, has signed two agreements with Johns Hopkins University giving the company exclusive options to license cancer genomics intellectual property. The first agreement covers 200 genes linked to breast and colon cancer, discovered in a landmark study published last year by researchers at Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center. Beckman Coulter Agencourt subsidiary's Genomic Services performed the sequencing for the study, which was co-authored by James Hartigan, an Agencourt project manager. The second agreement covers sequencing services and options to license genomic intellectual property from current studies on six additional cancers.
"Beckman Coulter will have the exclusive option to license any of the genetic mutations discovered in these studies that have diagnostic potential,” said Bruce Wallace, vice president, Molecular Diagnostics Business Center.
With these new agreements, Beckman Coulter will have first access to Johns Hopkins cancer study data. The company's molecular diagnostics assay group is already evaluating the breast and colon cancer genes. "The success of our strategic plan is dependent in part on our development of a robust molecular diagnostics business," Wallace continued. "We are already in the process of moving our research genomics technologies into platforms for diagnostic use."
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