Strand Life Sciences, a global leader in personalized medicine, genetic testing for oncology and other diseases entered into a partnership with MRI Global,  an independent non-profit organization headquartered at Kansas City, to open a reference laboratory and co-develop companion diagnostics for drugs in cancer and other diseases.

MRIGlobal is engaged in contract research for government and industry. Along with Strand MRI Global with its leadership in disease surveillance, and detection of bio threat agents will work towards successfully co-developing complex and high-end diagnostics.

At a global level, Strand and MRI Global will conduct joint R&D to integrate Strand SmartLab, which delivers NGS based diagnostic lab and informatics solutions for oncology and other diseases, with MRI Global’s Mobile Labs, which are deployed in resource-limited environments, to enable rapid disease diagnosis.

In addition, Strand will enter into the communicable diseases arena as a validation hub for new technologies including point-of-care devices, with an experienced global partner and this can add great value to public health initiatives in India.

The Bengaluru based company  will lead the genomic biomarker discovery, patient stratification strategy, companion diagnostic test design, bioinformatics data analysis/interpretation aspects of the project. MRI Global will perform independent validation of assays in their own lab in US, and help secure FDA approval for such co-developed diagnostic tests.

“With the rise in non-communicable diseases incidence and the emergence of new communicable diseases worldwide, it is imperative that we constantly innovate and develop diagnostic capabilities that will enable rapid detection and treatment of these diseases. We believe this collaboration will help us foster innovation and encourage in-depth research in the healthcare space to provide faster responses during disease outbreaks and better care for patients with cancer and other diseases,” said Dr. Eric Van Gieson, senior director of biosurveillance and diagnostics programmes, MRI Global.

Talking about this partnership, Dr Vijay Chandru, chairman & CEO, Strand Life Sciences said, “MRI Global has a distinguished record of high quality work in the field of diagnostics particularly communicable diseases where they have been the gateway for some of the most advanced technologies in dealing with point-of-care diagnostics and  in situ rapid response to epidemics with mobile labs. In partnering with MRI Global, we  will strengthen its activities in oncology related genomics and companion diagnostics for targeted therapies.”