Claris GenomiX Looks to Transform Precision Oncology Through Its Groundbreaking mRNA-Based Diagnostics

NOTRE DAME, Ind., Dec. 12, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- What if oncological diagnostics could offer clinicians better insights into which treatments may be more efficacious for their patients, which treatments to avoid, and also offer biopharma partners actionable intelligence that can enable them to develop better therapeutics?

By uncovering key molecular pathways driving a tumor's growth and elucidating a tumor's immune microenvironment, cutting-edge diagnostics like the ones being developed by Claris GenomiX are promising to make these dreams a reality.

"At Claris GenomiX, we have made significant discoveries and major advances in computational cancer biology and methods for developing clinical-grade diagnostics," said Dr. Steven Buechler, co-founder and CSO. "We are bringing these discoveries to a new class of mRNA-based cancer diagnostics."

Precision oncology aspires to match a cancer patient with the drug or drugs that best treats the patient's particular tumor biology. For the vast majority of patients, the current focus of precision oncology on DNA has failed to meet this challenge because a tumor's DNA profile is only a static snapshot of a tumor.

How a tumor responds to a drug depends on its molecular biology and tumor microenvironment (TME). The molecular species that best reflects this and is measurable in a clinical setting is mRNA. Quantification of mRNA using today's technology has the potential to take precision oncology to the next level. But there are many obstacles to creating analytically valid mRNA-based diagnostics that have clinical utility.

"Claris GenomiX's proprietary computational genomics tools are specifically designed to overcome these obstacles," said Buechler. "From targeted transcriptomic diagnostics using few genes, to our newly developed and groundbreaking tools for whole-transcriptomic diagnostics, our powerful algorithms prioritize accuracy, provide predictive power, and offer maximum sequencing flexibility while maintaining clinical-grade reliability."

Claris GenomiX recently announced that ColoType, its patented mRNA-based colorectal cancer diagnostic, is available for exclusive licensing. It is looking for a suitable partner to help bring the promise and power of Consensus Molecular Subtyping (CMS) to the over 153,000 colorectal cancer (CRC) patients diagnosed in the United States each year. A version of ColoType using a 40-gene targeted RNA-sequencing library was published in Scientific Reports in 2020. Claris GenomiX has more recently completed development of a version of ColoType for whole-transcriptome sequencing (WT). "ColoType for WT was developed with our new method of test development which offers accurate prediction even under the measurement error typical with WT," said Buechler.

"ColoType is the first commercially viable diagnostic capable of subtyping colorectal cancers based on the industry-standard consensus molecular subtyping system," said Jeff Sayre, co-founder and CEO of Claris GenomiX. "ColoType is one of the diagnostics in our ClarisInsight family of mRNA-based molecular diagnostics."

"Our ClarisInsight family of diagnostics show promise in significantly improving the lives of cancer patients in 15 solid-tumor types. Each year in the US, there are over 760,000 poor-prognosis patients, patients who have a 20% chance or greater of dying of their diseases within 5 years," said Sayre. "When released, we believe that our ClarisInsight diagnostics will help identify more treatment options for solid-tumor patients than any other diagnostics currently available. They could also become a valuable tool to biopharma partners developing new therapeutics."

Visit Claris GenomiX's website to learn more about ClarisInsight and to download a white paper on their precision oncology platform.

About Claris GenomiX, Inc.

Claris GenomiX is a precision oncology company innovating mRNA-based diagnostics that help oncologists select the best treatment options for their cancer patients.

SOURCE Claris GenomiX, Inc.