OncoMed Pharmaceuticals and Fluidigm Corporation Announce Collaboration

OncoMed Pharmaceuticals and Fluidigm Corporation have announced an initiative to apply the latter's microfluidic tools to the analysis of tumor cell heterogeneity, including cancer stem cells. The collaboration will combine the latter's microfluidic platforms with the former's cancer stem cell sorting technology to generate tools for analyzing, quantifying and developing treatments that are directed at a tumorigenic cell population.

In the initial application, OncoMed will apply Fluidigm's BioMark System and Dynamic Array Integrated Fluidic Circuits (IFCs) to perform the gene expression analysis of solid tumors at the whole tumor and single-cell level. This phase will track changes in cancer stem cells that are found in human tumors, following treatment with the former's pipeline of therapeutic monoclonal antibodies.

The companies will apply this same technology to analyze tumor heterogeneity and cancer stem cell frequency across the former's proprietary human tumor bank which includes approximately one hundred human tumor biopsies that have been engrafted and minimally passaged in immunocompromised mice.