Personal Genome Diagnostics Announces AACR Annual Meeting 2017 Presentations and Awards

BALTIMORE, March 30, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Personal Genome Diagnostics Inc. (PGDx) today announced that it has three scientific presentations at the upcoming American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2017, being held April 1-5, 2017, in Washington, D.C.  The company also announced that five scientists associated with PGDx—two co-founders and three scientific advisers—are recipients of the 11^th Annual AACR Team Science Award.

Doug Ward, CEO of Personal Genome Diagnostics, commented, "Our studies selected for oral presentation at the AACR Annual Meeting focus on our liquid biopsy products and technologies and our ImmunoSELECT service for the identification of tumor neoantigens for cancer immunotherapy. They demonstrate the broad leadership PGDx is committed to maintaining in the rapidly evolving cancer genomics field. We also congratulate our co-founders Dr. Luis Diaz and Dr. Victor Velculescu, along with PGDx scientific advisers Dr. Bert Vogelstein, Dr. Nickolas Papadopoulos and Dr. Kenneth Kinzler, who are among this year's recipients of the prestigious AACR Team Science Award. The talent and commitment of our people drive our success, and these individuals exemplify the excellence and teamwork that are essential to achieving great things in science."

At the AACR meeting, PGDx will present a study further validating the exceptional sensitivity and specificity of its liquid biopsy PlasmaSELECT^TM 64 pan-cancer profiling assay. PGDx believes that PlasmaSELECT is the most clinically actionable, CLIA-validated pan-cancer plasma assay available today. Earlier this week, PGDx announced that PlasmaSELECT is now the first liquid biopsy profiling assay to include measurement of MSI status as a biomarker for high tumor mutational load, which makes it especially relevant for determining patient suitability for treatment with cancer immunotherapies.¹

A second presentation confirms the accuracy and utility of PGDx's ImmunoSELECT^TM–R service designed to identify tumor neoantigens and support development of cancer immunotherapies. The service combines the high accuracy of PGDx's CancerXome^TM analysis with its proprietary bioinformatics neoantigen prediction pipeline. The study data demonstrate that the company's combined tissue processing, macrodissection, co-extraction and neoantigen prediction methodologies provide the information needed to accurately select actionable tumor neoantigens for immuno-oncology applications.²

PGDx researchers are also participating with colleagues from Johns Hopkins University, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and other research institutions in a late-breaking presentation focused on the detection of circulating tumor DNA in early stage cancer.

PGDx co-founders and scientific advisers Dr. Luis A. Diaz of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Dr. Victor Velculescu, Dr. Bert Vogelstein, Dr. Nickolas Papadopoulos and Dr. Kenneth Kinzler of Johns Hopkins University will be honored as recipients of the 11^th Annual AACR Team Science Award, which will be presented at the Opening Ceremony on April 2, 2017 at 8:00 am. The AACR Team Science Award recognizes an outstanding interdisciplinary research team for its innovative and meritorious science that has advanced or likely will advance our fundamental knowledge of cancer, or a team that has applied existing knowledge to advance the detection, diagnosis, prevention or treatment of cancer. This award was established by the AACR and Eli Lilly and Co. to acknowledge and catalyze the growing importance of interdisciplinary teams to the understanding of cancer and/or the translation of research discoveries into clinical cancer applications.

PGDx representatives will be available to discuss the company's advanced cancer genomic products and services at Booth #3022 throughout the AACR Annual Meeting. The company also is hosting an invitation-only reception Monday evening, April 3, 2017, from 6:00-9:00pm. For more information or an invitation to attend, visit the PGDx booth.

PGDx offers a complete range of cancer genome analysis tools, including exome and targeted approaches for tissue specimens, targeted approaches for plasma samples and a variety of custom tissue and plasma-based options designed to address the specific research needs of cancer researchers and drug developers. PGDx's service offerings for researchers and testing labs are complemented by the clinical services it provides through its CLIA-certified laboratory.   

1 - MS.CL10.02 - Liquid Biopsies 4,  April 4, 3:00-5:00pm, Clinical validation of a cell-free DNA liquid biopsy approach for noninvasive molecular profiling, M Nesselbush, S Angiuoli, LA Diaz, Jr., A Georgiadis, S Glynn, S Jones, L Keefer, P LoVerso, D Murphy, S Parpart-Li, D Riley, N Sengamalay, M Shukla, J Simmons, S Talati, R Steinberg, L Tucker, VE Velculescu, E Verner, A Villarta, M Sausen.

2 - PO.IM02.01 - T-cell Immunity to Cancer: New Progress, April 2, 1:00-5:00pm,  Accurate identification and prioritization of candidate neoantigens from integrated cancer exome and transcriptome sequencing of FFPE samples, M Novak, S Angiuoli, LA Diaz, Jr., A Georgiadis, S Jones, PR Loverso, S Parpart-Li, M Sevdali, VE Velculescu, EL Verner, J White, T Zhang, M Sausen. 

About Personal Genome Diagnostics  
Personal Genome Diagnostics (PGDx) is empowering the fight against cancer by unlocking actionable information from the genome for oncology researchers, drug developers, clinicians and patients. The expert team at PGDx draws on a deep understanding of cancer biology, extensive experience in cancer genomics and clinical oncology, and the company's distinctive technologies that precisely identify and characterize unique genomic alterations in tumors. PGDx is working toward broad patient access to its genomic technologies and products, through a CLIA-certified facility providing comprehensive genomic services, as well as a portfolio of regulated tissue-based and liquid biopsy genomic testing products for laboratories worldwide. Privately-held PGDx is headquartered in Baltimore, MD. For additional information, visit PersonalGenome.com.

SOURCE Personal Genome Diagnostics Inc.

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