“Most companies have come out of particular biological research and picked one horse to bet on,” said John Blume in explaining his company’s approach to developing a cancer diagnostic. “We’ve built a technology platform that takes a wide-angle view and lets data tell us what wins.”
Blume is the chief scientific officer of Applied Proteomics Inc., which has just landed a $28 million series C from investors to commercialize a biomarker for colon cancer.
Rather than using a person’s genome to assess his risk for cancer, like some cancer diagnostics companies are doing, API looks at the activity patterns of the proteins encoded by the genome. The genome might be useful in determining a person’s predisposition to developing a certain disease, but API thinks the activity of proteins is more useful in detecting the actual signs of cancer at their earliest stages.
Co-founder Dr. David Agus, the oncologist who co-founded Navigenics (acquired by Life Technologies in 2012), brought the scientific backing to the company when it started up in 2007. Equally important was Daniel Hillis, a renowned engineer and mathematician who helped create a more efficient biomarker discovery platform.
“(Our) technology takes dozens of steps and turns mass spectrometry into an industrialized process, which allows us to take beautiful pictures of proteomic data and sort out the good stuff,” Blume said.
API’s new $28 million infusion came from Genting Berhad, an investment holding company in Malaysia, and existing investors Domain Associates and Vulcan Capital. Some of it will go toward building a CLIA laboratory to conduct the mass-spectrometry assays.
Meanwhile, the company will continue to invest in large-scale clinical validation of its lead product, a blood test for pre-cursors to colorectal cancer that would help physicians direct high-risk patients toward colonoscopy.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
CEO Peter Klemm said there are numerous other applications for proteome-based diagnostics in the company’s pipeline, including diagnostics for cardiovascular disease, pancreatic cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and appendicitis.
“The ultimate vision is that the data cloud will be the test, that we can take a blood sample and look at the proteome to get a picture of health,” he said. “We are a long way from that, but that’s the ultimate vision.”
Here is Hillis’ description of the technology from a TEDMED talk in 2010.
