Imaging + pharmacogenetics

Despite its expectation of continued growth in its global magnetic resonance imaging systems business, GE Medical Systems last week embraced biotech for its potential to expand the numbers of patients seeking imaging regimens for diagnostic purposes. GE's partnership with Genometrix Inc. is intended to explore how pharmacogenetics can be pooled with imaging to achieve earlier diagnoses of cancer.

Genometrix (The Woodlands, Texas) will use its microarray technology to identify biomarkers for certain cancers, including SNPs and protein expression changes. The biomarkers will identify patients at risk of developing the cancers, who then can be referred for imaging regimens that allow detection of disease much earlier, before patients begin to experience symptoms...