Genialis Enlists Two New Partners as It Assembles World’s Most Ethno-Geographically Diverse Cancer Data Sets

The addition of data from Sidra Medicine and Sapien Biosciences ensures AI models reflect real-world patients, improving accuracy and clinical utility

BOSTON, MA, UNITED STATES, April 3, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Genialis, the RNA-biomarker company, today announced it has entered into new data partnerships with Sidra Medicine and Sapien Biosciences, expanding Genialis patient data sets to represent subpopulations of cancer patients from around the world. The new, real-world data sets – representing patients from Qatar, India, and more broadly Asia, respectively – will support validating Genialis-developed biomarkers on diverse patient populations to better predict responses to KRAS inhibitors, immunotherapies, and other emerging classes of therapeutics.

“Sidra Medicine is committed to enhancing its research and pediatric cancer care program as part of our mission to provide precision medicine for all our patients in Qatar,” said Dr. Wouter Hendrickx, Lead Principal Investigator of the Precision Oncology Initiative at Sidra Medicine. “By integrating Genialis’ suite of predictive biomarker algorithms into our workflows, we can begin to truly understand the molecular diversity of our patients and personalize treatment protocols and therapies.”

According to CRUK, another Genialis data partner, a small number of cancer types are more common among certain ethnicities compared with those of European descent, including myeloma, stomach and prostate cancer in people of African ancestry, and gallbladder cancer in African and Asian diaspora. Identifying and validating biomarkers for patient populations currently underrepresented in existing data sets will help Genialis improve the accuracy of its machine learning models and expand the reach of its portfolio of predictive biomarkers for better patient selection.

“Immuno-oncology is one area where, in the West, biomarkers have become increasingly essential to clinical care. But there are so many to choose from, and most of these were developed for Western populations, lacking representation of Asian and African population data of European descent,” says Dr. Jugnu Jain, CEO of Sapien Biosciences. “Sapien is systematically addressing this gap by characterizing thousands of Indian cancer samples for biomarkers, including gene mutations, microsatellite instability, and tumor microenvironment subtypes. With Genialis’ RNA-based algorithms, we can further analyze and accurately assign status for a wide range of such biomarkers, from MSI-H to tumor microenvironment subtypes, to the samples in our Indian biobank, enriching the utility of our annotated samples for drug and diagnostic R&D.”

“Cancer drug development has extremely high failure rates – but we don’t always know why. Sometimes, an effective drug in one cohort misses its endpoints for all other patients. And sometimes we see patients failing to respond to an otherwise highly successful drug,” said Rafael Rosengarten, Ph.D., CEO of Genialis. “Through these new data partnerships, we can incorporate data from all over the world into our modeling process. We’re confident this will help us ​​deliver biomarkers that work for real patients and hopefully begin to close the gap in healthcare outcomes.”

Genialis will attend the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) 2024 Annual Meeting in San Diego on April 5-10, 2024, presenting a new poster, “GenialisTM krasID: Biology-driven machine learning to personalize KRAS inhibitor therapeutics.” KRAS mutations are prevalent in common oncologic malignancies, including lung, colorectal, and pancreatic cancers, with frequencies ranging from 25 percent in NSCLC to nearly 95 percent in pancreatic. Genialis krasID is a first-of-its-kind patient classifier that uses RNA sequencing and machine learning to analyze foundational aspects of KRAS biology. Previous biomarkers developed through the Genialis ResponderID framework have been validated to predict patient response to targeted therapeutics in myriad solid tumor types and for a wide variety of approved and investigational drugs with different targets and mechanisms of action.

To learn more about Genialis biomarker programs or to schedule a meeting at AACR, please visit www.genialis.com or email biomarkers@genialis.com


About Genialis
Genialis, the RNA biomarker company, is creating a world where healthcare delivers the best possible outcomes for patients, their families, and their communities. Genialis develops and validates clinically actionable biomarkers informed by the world’s most ethnographically diverse cancer data sets to better predict patient responses and guide treatment decisions for targeted inhibitors, immunotherapies, and other emerging therapeutic classes. Genialis is trusted by pharma and diagnostics partners, and together, we are transforming medicine through data. For more information, please visit www.genialis.com


About Sidra Medicine
Sidra Medicine provides specialized healthcare to women, children, and young people from Qatar and around the world.

Established by Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development, Sidra Medicine embraces best practice medical education, innovative biomedical and clinical research and discovery, and exceptional patient and family focused care.

Sidra Medicine provides comprehensive specialist healthcare services like maternity and gynecology care for women. Some of its unique children’s specialist services include Cardiology, Neurology, Urology and Plastics & Craniofacial Reconstruction. It is also currently the only specialist center in the country that treats and cares for pregnant women with fetal complications. All pediatric cancer patient in Qatar are also referred to Sidra Medicine for treatment and Sidra Medicine’s Pediatric Precision Oncology initiative offers each patient with a tumor the option to participate in the Pediatric Biobank and is provided with NGS based molecular profiling.

The ultramodern healthcare organization is a testament to Qatar’s pioneering spirit and sustained commitment to its human and social development.

To access Sidra Medicine services, and learn more about their contribution to global healthcare, education and research, please visit www.sidra.org


About Sapien Biosciences
Sapien Biosciences is India’s pioneer biobank and personalized medicine company, a joint venture that leverages Saarum Innovation’s global life sciences research expertise with Apollo and other hospitals’ pan-India network of accredited multi-specialty hospitals and patient care. Biobank has a governance TAC and structure toEC ensure compliance with ethical and regulatory guidelines. Cancer comprises ~85,000 of its collection of >300,000 cases covering diverse diseases. Our mission is to enable the development of novel clinical diagnostics and provide biospecimen and real world data services to promote R&D that improves patient treatment and outcomes. https://sapienbio.co.in/

Andrea Vuturo
Vuturo Group for Genialis
+1 415-689-8414
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