SkylineDx, a Netherland-based commercial-stage biotech company has inked a joint development agreement with with Mayo Clinic to develop novel diagnostic tests which will improve clinical decision making for melanoma patients. For SkylineDx, the collaboration with the renowned Mayo Clinic is an important milestone as it allows the company to develop new diagnostic tests and extend its product offering for a broader group of patients and clinicians.
The knowledge and experience of SkylineDx in the field of bio-informatics will help Mayo Clinic to optimize and further develop an algorithm to identify risk factors associated with metastasis, originally discovered and developed by Mayo Clinic dermatologist Alexander Meves, M.D., and his team.
Melanoma is a type of skin cancer that develops in the pigment-producing melanocytes in the basal layer of the epidermis. Risk for developing melanoma is influenced by several factors including exposure to radiation from sunshine, skin type, age and sex. If melanoma is recognized and treated early, it is almost always curable. However, melanoma is responsible for a majority of skin cancer related deaths, because it may spread to other sites of the body, where it becomes hard to treat and can be fatal.
The outcome of these molecular-based tests will help physicians target patients to appropriate treatment interventions. This meets the growing need for individual treatment and personalized medicine. Molecular testing can be performed on routinely collected biopsy tissue to determine the probability for metastatic spread with high accuracy.
“The collaboration with Mayo Clinic is a significant achievement for SkylineDx since this enables us to further extend our product offering by using our knowledge and experience in the field of bio-informatics in other disease areas outside of multiple myeloma, building upon our existing assets and capabilities,” said Dharminder S. Chahal, Chief Executive Officer of SkylineDx in a statement. “We are very impressed with the work of Dr. Meves and his group and are delighted that they chose SkylineDx as their collaboration partner to address an unmet medical need and to improve the quality of life for patients.”
