PrecisionMed Press Release
October 9, 2007
PrecisionMed Inc. Announces Longitudinal Alzheimer's Disease Spinal Fluid Biological SAMPLE Registry.
SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
PrecisionMed Inc. today announced enrollment of the first subject into THE SAMPLE REGISTRY (Serial Alzheimer's Disease and MCI Prospective Longitudinal Evaluation). The SAMPLE Registry is a biological sample bank of DNA and serial RNA, CSF, serum and plasma associated with serial cognition testing utilizing PrecisionMed's clinical sample and data procurement and storage capabilities.
The SAMPLE Registry is a collection of correlated data and biological samples expected to be of value for the investigation of markers of cognitive decline.
The SAMPLE Registry will enroll at least 200 subjects, with either MCI or AD, aged 50 years and above. All subjects will be recruited, evaluated, cognitively studied, and sampled from 12-15 US based, experienced investigative sites. Enrollment has begun and is expected to take about 2 years to complete. Key aspects of subjects' cognition including memory and attention will be evaluated every six months with simultaneous biological sample banking for a period of 5 or more years. Samples and data will be made available to clients on a monthly basis. Special attention will be paid to maintaining patients in the study by providing incentives for continued participation to patients and/or care givers.
"PrecisionMed is dedicated to establishing cohorts of individuals for in depth longitudinal clinical and biological evaluation," said John Flax, M.D., President and CEO of PrecisionMed. "In The SAMPLE Registry we will establish robust baseline cognition scores using the same validated instruments every 6 months and thus any ongoing change will be accurately and repeatedly quantified. In neuropsychiatric disease specifically, accurate phenotyping is critical in relating changes in the clinical picture to alterations in biology. PrecisionMed has prior experience with cognition evaluations in banking projects involving Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia and elderly control populations and maintains a collection of samples from these populations which includes CSF. The SAMPLE Registry complements the ongoing ACE registry (Aging Cognition Evaluation) of similar design in normal subjects aged 60-75 which now has 70 subjects enrolled."
Dr. Herbert Meltzer, Medical Director of PrecisionMed and a renowned professor of Psychiatry, had this to say about The SAMPLE Registry concept: "Prospective study of a large sample of individuals using the SAMPLE Registry design will enable multiple pharmaceutical and academic researchers to study the evolution of early AD or MCI, using a multiplicity of biomarkers. By integrating the laboratory and clinical data, it should be possible to obtain important information for drug discovery, diagnosis, prediction of response to treatments, and prognosis. The track record of PrecisionMed in this kind of collection is excellent and bodes well that the data and samples will be of the highest quality."
Six monthly samples with matched clinical data will be available on a longitudinal basis to our clients. Custom requests for additional sample types, as well as more complex clinical, laboratory and/or radiographic evaluations within selected subpopulations will be entertained as the registry matures.
PrecisionMed Inc.
PrecisionMed Inc., founded in 1994, is a privately held human biobank in the San Diego, California area. Its sample bank is a repository of human blood, DNA, RNA, PBMC, serum, plasma, urine and CSF linked to de-identified audited clinical data. Samples are available to the pharmaceutical industry to enhance drug discovery and development, therapeutic target validation and molecular diagnostic product development. PrecisionMed provides customers access to samples with associated clinical information from a population of disease-specific subjects and healthy matched controls. PrecisionMed is expanding its collections to include additional neuropsychiatric and other diseases. PrecisionMed offers custom sample collections in any disease area.
CONTACT:
PrecisionMed Inc., San Diego
John S. Flax, M.D., 858-847-0117
SOURCE: PrecisionMed Inc.
About the ACE Registry
ACE Longitudinal Cognition Followup
ACE Registry Recruitment Update
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