Hunt partners to offer samples for biomarker research
Biomarkers are attracting the interest of pharmas and contract research organisations (CRO) keen to identify promising therapeutic candidates at an early stage. Hunt believes the samples collected over the past 25 years can help advance research in this area.
The samples are widely used in the academic community, according to Hunt, and the collaboration with Tissue Solutions is intended to increase penetration into the pharma and diagnostic markets.
Scotland-based Tissue Samples will market the collection to the pharma industry and expects new and existing customers to be interested in the potential of the new offering.
“We believe that the unique combination of biomedical and phenotypic information that has been collected over the past 25 years from a general population rather than a specific disease cohort can help accelerate biomarker discovery and validation”, added Per Foss, CEO of Hunt.
The blood samples and detailed phenotypic and environmental data have been collected from the general population of the Nord-Trøndelag region in mid-Norway. Hunt and its associated biobank represent a regional cohort of more than 100,000 individuals comprising 3,000 clinical variables.
Using the general population means the samples predate the onset of disease. Foss believes this can improve research into key public health areas, such as cancer, diabetes, osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease, obstructive lung disease and mental health.
Hunt added that Norwegian authorities operate a well-established framework and rigorous routines and this has reassured to population about the protection of personal information.
