Related news
Discover more stories about Mitacs — and the game-changing innovations driven by students and postdocs.
Toronto — Proteocyte Diagnostics Inc. of Toronto announced their collaboration with Mitacs Accelerate to conduct an economic evaluation of its predictive technology for the early detection of oral cancer.
“We’ve partnered with Mitacs before with great success,” said Dr. Mario Thomas, Chief Commercialization Officer of Proteocyte Diagnostics. “The intent of this study is to show the value for money of identifying oral cancer before it happens. We know that private payers and governments will want solid data supporting the value of Straticyte. This is a groundbreaking diagnostic test for early identification of oral cancers that has the potential to save lives, improve quality of life and reduce healthcare costs.”
Proteocyte Diagnostics is a Canadian molecular diagnostics company that has developed a novel diagnostics test, Straticyte™ that objectively and accurately detects precancerous oral lesions at high risk of becoming cancerous. Straticyte is the first and only molecular diagnostic test for oral precancerous lesions that provides an objective and accurate prediction score as evidenced by retrospective clinical studies.
“The partnership with Mitacs and Proteocyte Diagnostics will help to further technology around the early identification of oral cancer — an important and dynamic research area for patients, companies, researchers and educators,” said Rob Annan, interim CEO and Scientific Director of Mitacs.
The study will be conducted by Shoghag Khoudigian, a Master of Science student in the Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, McMaster University, under the supervision of Dr. Daria O’Reilly.
Mitacs created and administers the Accelerate program, which connects graduate students and post-doctoral fellows with companies through short-term research projects. Interns apply their specialized expertise to business research challenges by transferring their skills from theory to real-world application, while companies gain a competitive advantage by accessing high-quality research expertise.
Previously, Proteocyte Diagnostics sought academic research expertise in statistics, and through Mitacs Business Development Director, Rebecca Bourque, was matched with Akram Alyass, a Masters student in Statistics from McMaster University, and his supervisor, Professor Lehana Thabane. The statistical modeling has assisted in the drive to commercialize Straticyte.
About Proteocyte Diagnostics www.proteocyte.com
Proteocyte Diagnostics Inc. is a Canadian molecular diagnostics company that develops and commercializes a novel diagnostics technology, Straticyte™, that offers objective and accurate early diagnosis of precancers and cancers. The company’s first product, objectively and accurately distinguishes between those precancerous oral lesions at high risk of becoming cancerous and those that pose low risk. Early diagnosis of high risk lesions permits more effective and less traumatizing treatments. By identifying and treating oral cancer before it happens, clinicians can save lives, healthcare costs are reduced and quality of life of patients is improved. Identifying more accurately low risk pre-cancerous lesions avoids unnecessary surgeries and allows clinicians to monitor patients regularly for peace of mind.
About Mitacs www.mitacs.ca
Mitacs is a national, private not-for-profit organization that has designed and delivered unique research and training programs in Canada for 15 years. In partnership with companies, government and universities, Mitacs is supporting a new economy using Canada’s most valuable resource — its people.
###
Media contacts:
Proteocyte Diagnostics Inc.
Leslie Caton
Communications Manager
www.proteocyte.com
416-994-4051
lcaton@proteocyte.com
Mitacs
Heather Young
Director, Communications
www.mitacs.ca
604-818-0020
hyoung@mitacs.ca
