Indivumed founder and CEO recognized for contribution to liquid biopsy innovation

American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) bestows 2017 Team Science Award to a renowned team of investigators who pioneered the science of Liquid Biopsy: Luis A. Diaz, Nishant Agrawal, Chetan Bettegowda, Frank Diehl, Peter Gibbs, Stanley R. Hamilton, Ralph H. Hruban, Hartmut Juhl, Isaac Kinde, Kenneth Kinzler, Martin Nowak, Nickolas Papadopoulos, David Sidransky, Jeanne Tie, Victor E. Velculescu, Bert Vogelstein

Hamburg, Germany, March 31, 2017– Indivumed, GmbH announces today that its Founder and Chie Executive Officer Hartmut Juhl, MD, surgical oncologist and cancer researcher has been recognized by the AACR for his participation in the development and commercialization of the field of Liquid Biopsy research.

In 2008, following a five-year collaboration with Dr. Bert Vogelstein and his team at Johns Hopkins University, Indivumed, the German biotechnology company founded by Dr. Juhl, partnered with Dr. Vogelstein’s team to support the development of the BEAMing technology which allowed for the first time detection of mutations in circulating tumor DNA. Together they founded Inostics GmbH in Hamburg, Germany. Inostic’s core mission was to commercialize “BEAMing” technology, the ground breaking platform developed by Vogelstein and his team to advance the field of Liquid Biopsy. In 2013, Indivumed sold 100% of its shares of Inostics and its U.S.-based subsidiary to Sysmex Corporation, headquartered in Kobe, Japan.

Juhl said of the partnership with Vogelstein and his team, “the transatlantic cooperation between top researchers at The Johns Hopkins University and Indivumed was unprecedented. The outcome was to offer with Inostics a full range of preclinical and clinical research services to pharmaceutical companies and the healthcare community and promoted the development of individualized cancer therapies.” Juhl went on to say that “partnering with Dr. Vogelstein and his research group gave Indivumed the opportunity to help forge an entirely new field of science that is helping to unlock the molecular secrets of cancer one patient at a time.”

According to the AACR award announcement, “The AACR recognizes the team for pioneering the concept of utilizing cancer mutations as biomarkers in the context of liquid biopsies. This remarkable collaborative effort, which has spanned two decades of research, has led to dramatic technological advancements in detecting cancer and defined a new field in oncology. Furthermore, these studies have contributed to the development of an FDA-approved DNA-based screening test for cancer, which is expected to revolutionize our approach to colorectal cancer screening in the next decade.”

The AACR announcement went on to state, “this multidisciplinary team pioneered the concept of "liquid biopsies", i.e., the use of somatic mutations as exquisitely specific biomarkers for solid tumors. This work, which started in the 1990’s by team members Vogelstein, Sidranksy and Kinzler, includes the initial proof-of-principle studies, the development of advanced technologies that made it feasible and the demonstration of its value for research and clinical practice.”

The team members will receive their awards at the Opening Ceremony, which will be held Sunday, April 2, 2017, in Washington, DC in the Washington Convention Center.

About AACR Team Science Award

The AACR Team Science Award has been established by the American Association for Cancer Research and Eli Lilly and Company 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.

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.

About Indivumed GmbH

INDIVUMED an ISO certified global oncology research company based in Hamburg, Germany, has established the world’s leading Cancer Database and biobank, retaining unique patterns of biomolecules such as RNA, DNA, and proteins as they existed in the human body. This Cancer Database makes possible multi-omics capabilities that will allow for characterization of samples and data, such as whole genome gene expression analysis, expression analysis of cancer relevant proteins, expression analysis of cancer relevant phosphoproteins and bioinformatic solutions for integrating molecular, biological and clinical information.

INDIVUMED founded in 2010, in collaboration with Berg Vogelstein. M.D., Director of the Ludwig Center, Clayton Professor of Oncology and Pathology and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute and investigator at The Johns Hopkins Medical School and Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, Inostics GmbH, the first commercially viable company advancing the science of liquid biopsy in cancer research.

For more information, please visit www.indivumed.com

CONTACT:
Hartmut Juhl, MD
Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Indivumed GmbH
+49-40-413383-0
press@indivumed.com

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