Medical diagnostics company lands $800k: Rna Diagnostics to build Sudbury lab for cancer tests.

• Author: Migneault, Jonathan
• Position: SUDBURY

A Toronto-based medical diagnostics company with strong roots in Sudbury recently secured around $800,000 from angel investors mainly based in Sudbury.

"We're very pleased about the support we've had from the Sudbury folks," said Dr. Ken Pritzker, the president and CEO of Rna Diagnostics.

While the company's head office is in Toronto, it was research at Sudbury's Advanced Medical Research Institute of Canada (AMRIC) that helped create Rna Diagnostics.

Sudbury's Dr. Amadeo Parissenti led a team that developed a laboratory test--called the RNA Disruption Assay test--that can help patients with breast cancer tailor their treatment based on their genetic makeup.

RNA stands for ribonucleic acid, large biological molecules that perform vital roles for the coding, decoding and regulation of genes.

Parissenti and his research team at Health Sciences North analyzed breast cancer tumour tissue samples, and discovered there is a correlation between the amount of RNA degradation and complete tumour destruction after treatment.

If a tissue sample had high--quality RNA after several rounds of chemotherapy, it meant the treatment was not very effective.

But a tissue sample with degraded, or disrupted RNA, after those same rounds of chemotherapy, meant the patient would be a good candidate to continue the therapy, since the tumour was being destroyed.

Those patients with high quality RNA could forgo the toxic side effects of continuing chemotherapy, and opt for surgery, radiation therapy, or other treatments instead.

Thanks to its Sudbury roots, Rna Diagnostics has developed an ongoing relationship with the Northern Centre for Advanced Technology (NORCAT), which facilitated meetings with investors.

Pritzker said the latest round of funding will help the company bring the RNA Disruption Assay test to market, and will also facilitate the development of a lab based at NORCAT's complex on Maley Drive.

"It's our intent to establish the lab, and it would serve patients across the world," Pritzker said.

He said he expects to have a lab up and running by mid-2016.

The laboratory would support around four researchers at first, who would test cancer tissue...