Archive for the ‘Press Release’ Category

Q: Do you think improvements in tumor classification are going to prove essential to the process of breast cancer diagnosis and therapy?

DR. KING: I do think it’s important. I think that the approaches being used, from morphology to protein markers to RNA expression profiles, are all useful.

A very promising next step will be to develop treatments that work for reasons that we understand against one subset of tumors as defined either by their protein profiles, their morphology, their DNA expression profiles, or their somatic alterations—or some combinations thereof. Read the rest of this entry »

Q: What happens that allows mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2 to lead to cancer rather than causing cell death

DR. KING: That’s the other big puzzle in this field because these are genes involved in critical pathways. It was clear from very early knockout work that these genes are critical for development. The full knockouts were early embryonic lethals. So why do we ever see tumor development? It’s now clear that p53 may play a role in which alterations of p53 may modify the consequence of the knockout of BRCA1. It may well be the case that there is some small subset of cells, which even if the gene is knocked out, don’t die. Read the rest of this entry »

Q: For twenty years you hammered out the problem of gene-specific causation and were finally able to identify genes associated with breast cancer, BRCA1 and then BRCA2. How are these discoveries affecting breast cancer research?

DR. KING: I think the discoveries have had two different effects. First and most obviously they have an enormous, direct, clinical, and practical impact on women who carry these mutations. I think there’s no controversy now that BRCA1 and BRCA2 are the major breast cancer genes. Both BRCA1 and BRCA2 have a vast number of different protein-truncating mutations that abrogate their normal functions. But there still remains a great deal of controversy about just what risks for breast cancer and for ovarian cancer are associated with mutations in these genes. Read the rest of this entry »

Q: You began studying breast cancer early in your career. How did you become interested in this line of inquiry and what made you think breast cancer could be inherited? Read the rest of this entry »

New Haven, CT August 13, 2001– Molecular Staging Inc., today announced that, together with Amersham Pharmacia Bio-tech, the two companies have developed a simple method of using Rolling Circle Amplification to copy circular DNA for sequencing, 10,000 fold in a few hours.

“This procedure, which removes the need for lengthy growth periods and traditional DNA isolation procedures, will deliver operational efficiency gains for DNA sequencing centers and genomics companies” said Dr. Stephen Kingsmore, COO of Molecular Staging Inc.

The method is very simple, involving only a few steps, namely heat lysis of the organism containing the DNA of interest and an isothermal amplification step.
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New Haven, CT. June 4, 2001 - Molecular Staging Inc. (MSI) today confirmed that Motorola will not exercise an option to license Rolling Circle Amplification technology (RCAT™) for applications in the clinical diagnostics market. Instead, Motorola Inc. intends to pursue the use of RCAT™ for a number of research applications.

Motorola Inc. and MSI entered into a license option agreement related to the use of RCAT™ on clinical diagnostic microarrays, November 7, 2000, whereby Motorola Inc. paid certain research • fees and made an equity investment in MSI. The agreement provided for an evaluation period during which Motorola Inc and MSI would work together to meet specific technical milestones.
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Funding will enhance Molecular Staging’s leadership position in signal and target amplification and accelerate MSI’s efforts in the proteomics, genomics and molecular diagnostics markets.

NEW HAVEN, CT — Molecular Staging Inc. (MSI), a privately-held life sciences tool company, announced today that it has completed a Series D preferred stock financing totaling $41.25 million. Investor AB, through Investor Growth Capital, participated in the private placement along with OrbiMed, CIBC Capital Partners and Cooper Hill Partners. Domain Partners III, CHL Medical Partners and 3i Bioscience Investment Trust, who were already holders of preferred stock in Molecular Staging, also participated in the new round of financing. Investor AB and OrbiMed will be entitled to name two representatives to the board.

Liza Page Nelson, Managing Director of Investor Growth Capital said “Molecular Staging has made tremendous progress in the development and validation of its key platforms. Seldom does one find a company whose technology can broadly address so many markets; these include research reagents, drug research and development, diagnostics, and life sciences.”
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Ultra-sensitive Prototype Assay for Prostate Cancer Marker Also Reported
PRINCETON, N.J., Oct. 2 /PRNewswire/ — AxCell Biosciences Corporation, a subsidiary of Cytogen Corporation (Nasdaq: CYTO - news) and Molecular Staging, Inc., (MSI), Guilford, CT, initiated a scientific plan to investigate potential synergies between their technologies to map protein pathways more rapidly and efficiently. MSI’s Rolling Circle Amplification Technology (RCATTM) is a proprietary, highly sensitive and efficient amplification method for detecting the presence of target molecules micro-arrayed on a biochip. By combining AxCell’s domain-ligand interaction technology with MSI’s protein arrays, the two companies believe that they may be able to increase the rate of protein interaction measurements by 10 fold more than AxCell’s current rate of approximately 10,000 interactions per day.
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