SALT LAKE CITY, Sept. 07, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Myriad RBM, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Myriad Genetics, Inc. (NASDAQ:MYGN) a global leader in personalized medicine, announced today that researchers from the Institut Pasteur have published new landmark research from the Milieu Interieur Project relating to the ability to perform standardized transcriptome profiling based upon a variety of immune stimuli in the August issue of Cell Reports. The study looked at the expression levels of different genes in 25 subjects following TruCulture incubation with twenty clinically relevant immune system stimulants. The research demonstrated that expression levels from as few as 44 of the 572 genes tested could segregate responses from the various stimuli and reveal variations in immune response.
"We are excited by the results of this study which demonstrated that a relatively small subset of gene expression targets could explain the variability in immune response to different immune stimuli seen among patients," said Matthew Albert, co-coordinator of Milieu Interieur and director of the Immunobioology of Dendritic Cells Unit at the Institut Pasteur. "The ability of TruCulture to perform this analysis in an ex-vivo environment is truly unique making it an invaluable tool for assessing potential biomarkers relevant to immune response in patients."
To perform the study, the researchers at the Institut Pasteur utilized Myriad RBM’s TruCulture technology which is a proprietary blood collection and culturing system that allows researchers to perform ex-vivo immune system analysis. Unlike the current laboratory-based methods, TruCulture is deployed at the site of collection and therefore avoids variability from shipping and complex processing as well as the expense of a cell culture facility and staff.
"We are increasingly excited around the prospects for TruCulture both for use in pharmaceutical research as well as for potential future diagnostic products," said Ralph McDade, president of Myriad RBM. "We are actively pursuing several research collaborations to develop TruCulture as a novel diagnostic in cancer immunotherapy, autoimmune disorders, mental illness and vaccine response."
This research builds upon earlier work at the Institut Pasteur that looked at the ability of TruCulture to accurately and reproducibly measure protein based cytokine responses in patient samples relative to different immune stimuli. The approaches and learnings from this study and previous studies will now be utilized in over 1,000 healthy donors with the Milieu Interieur cohort that will evaluate how different factors such as age, gender, environment, lifestyle, and genetics contribute to variable immune responses.
About Institut Pasteur and the Milieu Interieur Project
The Institut Pasteur, a private foundation with officially recognized charitable status set up by Louis Pasteur in 1887, is today an internationally renowned center for biomedical research with a network of 33 institutes worldwide. In the pursuit of its mission to prevent and fight against diseases in France and throughout the world, the Institut Pasteur operates in four main areas: scientific and medical research, public health and health monitoring, teaching, and business development and technology transfer. www.pasteur.fr/en
The Milieu Interieur project is a population-based study supported by the French National Ministry of Research and coordinated by the Institut Pasteur, Paris. The goal of Milieu Interieur is to characterize the immune phenotypes of 1,000 healthy subjects in response to 32 complex immune stimulants. Responses to these stimuli in TruCulture are being assessed using advanced cellular, nucleic acid, proteomic and metabolic assay technologies. For more information visit: www.milieuinterieur.fr/en
About Myriad Genetics
Myriad Genetics Inc., is a leading personalized medicine company dedicated to being a trusted advisor transforming patient lives worldwide with pioneering molecular diagnostics. Myriad discovers and commercializes molecular diagnostic tests that: determine the risk of developing disease, accurately diagnose disease, assess the risk of disease progression and guide treatment decisions across six major medical specialties where molecular diagnostics can significantly improve patient care and lower healthcare costs. Myriad is focused on three strategic imperatives: transitioning and expanding its hereditary cancer testing markets, diversifying its product portfolio through the introduction of new products and increasing the revenue contribution from international markets. For more information on how Myriad is making a difference, please visit the Company's website: www.myriad.com.
Myriad, the Myriad logo, BART, BRACAnalysis, Colaris, Colaris AP, EndoPredict, myPath, myRisk, Myriad myRisk, myRisk Hereditary Cancer, myChoice, myPlan, BRACAnalysis CDx, Tumor BRACAnalysis CDx, myChoice HRD, Vectra and Prolaris are trademarks or registered trademarks of Myriad Genetics, Inc. or its wholly owned subsidiaries in the United States and foreign countries. MYGN-F, MYGN-G
Safe Harbor Statement
This press release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements relating to use of TruCulture as a tool for assessing potential biomarkers relevant to immune response in patients; the use of TruCulture in pharmaceutical research as well as for potential future diagnostic products; to potential research collaborations to develop TruCulture as a novel diagnostic in cancer immunotherapy, autoimmune disorders, mental illness and vaccine response; and the Company’s strategic directives under the caption “About Myriad Genetics.” These “forward-looking statements” are based on management’s current expectations of future events and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially and adversely from those described or implied in the forward-looking statements. These risks include, but are not limited to: the risk that sales and profit margins of our existing molecular diagnostic tests and pharmaceutical and clinical services may decline or will not continue to increase at historical rates; risks related to our ability to transition from our existing product portfolio to our new tests; risks related to changes in the governmental or private insurers’ reimbursement levels for our tests or our ability to obtain reimbursement for our new tests at comparable levels to our existing tests; risks related to increased competition and the development of new competing tests and services; the risk that we may be unable to develop or achieve commercial success for additional molecular diagnostic tests and pharmaceutical and clinical services in a timely manner, or at all; the risk that we may not successfully develop new markets for our molecular diagnostic tests and pharmaceutical and clinical services, including our ability to successfully generate revenue outside the United States; the risk that licenses to the technology underlying our molecular diagnostic tests and pharmaceutical and clinical services tests and any future tests are terminated or cannot be maintained on satisfactory terms; risks related to delays or other problems with operating our laboratory testing facilities; risks related to public concern over our genetic testing in general or our tests in particular; risks related to regulatory requirements or enforcement in the United States and foreign countries and changes in the structure of the healthcare system or healthcare payment systems; risks related to our ability to obtain new corporate collaborations or licenses and acquire new technologies or businesses on satisfactory terms, if at all; risks related to our ability to successfully integrate and derive benefits from any technologies or businesses that we license or acquire, including but not limited to our acquisition of a healthcare clinic in Germany; risks related to our projections about the potential market opportunity for our products; the risk that we or our licensors may be unable to protect or that third parties will infringe the proprietary technologies underlying our tests; the risk of patent-infringement claims or challenges to the validity of our patents; risks related to changes in intellectual property laws covering our molecular diagnostic tests and pharmaceutical and clinical services and patents or enforcement in the United States and foreign countries, such as the Supreme Court decision in the lawsuit brought against us by the Association for Molecular Pathology et al; risks of new, changing and competitive technologies and regulations in the United States and internationally; and other factors discussed under the heading “Risk Factors” contained in Item 1A of our Annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2016, which has been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as any updates to those risk factors filed from time to time in our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q or Current Reports on Form 8-K.