Vancouver, British Columbia – (March 16, 2021) – BioMark Diagnostics Inc. (“BioMark”) (CSE: BUX) (FSE: 20B) (OTCMKTS: BMKDF) is pleased to announce today that its sponsored research collaboration with The Metabolomics Innovation Centre (TMIC) was successful in receiving funding from the Novel Technology Application in Cancer Prevention and Early Detection Spark Grants competition. This comes after the organizers of the competition, the Canadian Cancer Society/Canadian Institutes of Health Research – Institute of Cancer Research, and Brain Canada Foundation, evaluated the full proposal for its relevance to funding opportunities in the prevention and early detection of cancer. The funding application is entitled “A novel rapid, liquid biopsy early-stage lung cancer diagnostic test”. The grant was for $150,000.
The study is being led by Professor David Wishart and his team at The Metabolomics Innovation Centre from the Departments of Biological Sciences and Computing Science at the University of Alberta. The funding will be used to validate BioMark’s liquid biopsy platform and proprietary biomarker panel for the detection of early-stage lung cancer in over 1200 patients. Our team, which consists of leaders in oncology, lung cancer, mass spectrometry and clinical translation will work together to ensure the successful translation, implementation, and commercialization of this metabolomics assay. Upon completion of this project, we expect to have: 1) a validated biomarker panel for the detection of early-stage lung cancer; 2) a laboratory-developed test that is compatible and easily integrated on mass spectrometry platforms already routinely used in clinical labs and 3) a well-developed plan for translation and implementation of the test using a proprietary system in an accredited lab in Quebec and later across Canada.
“We are delighted to continue our collaboration with Dr. Wishart and his team at TMIC. Over the past 4 years we have worked hard to establish metabolite biomarkers that are specific to lung cancer in plasma samples and now we begin the final stretch in validating our test toward commercialization across Canada. A simpler, cheaper and more accurate test for early detection of lung cancer would benefit patients by providing improved outcome to high-risk patients. Such a test will also have the potential to disrupt the management of patient at higher risk due to smoking and other environmental exposures, leading to better screening modalities and reduced healthcare burden globally,” Mr. Bux added.
About Sparks Grant.
BioMark would like to thank The Canadian Cancer Society (CCS), the Canadian Institutes of Health Research – Institute of Cancer Research (CIHR-ICR), and Brain Canada Foundation for their generous financial support for Spark Grants on the Application of Disruptive Technologies in Cancer Prevention and Early Detection of the Canadian Cancer Society and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research-Institute for Cancer Research and Brain Canada Foundation (CCS grant # 707073/CIHR-IRSC grant # 0590008438). Both TMIC and BioMark will acknowledge all the supporting agencies in publications or events related to the use of the funds.
About TMIC
The Metabolomics Innovation Centre (TMIC) is a nationally funded network that offers a unique combination of infrastructure and expertise to perform a wide range of cutting-edge metabolomic studies for clinical trials research, biomedical studies, bioproducts studies, nutrient profiling and environmental testing. Network scientists include Dr. Liang Li (University of Alberta), Dr. David Wishart (University of Alberta), Dr. Christoph Borchers (McGill University), Dr. James Harynuk (University of Alberta), Dr. Michael Overduin (University of Alberta), Dr. David Goodlett (University of Victoria), Dr. Philip Britz-McKibbin (McMaster University) and Dr. Ian Lewis (University of Calgary).
TMIC has access to more than $26 million in state-of-the-art metabolomics infrastructure. It is supported by a team of lab managers, NMR spectroscopists, mass spectrometrists, chemists, computer scientists, statisticians and bioinformaticians. TMIC is capable of identifying and quantifying up to 2000 different chemicals from certain biological samples. This is approximately 5X more comprehensive than any other service currently available.
