SANTA CLARA, CA--(Marketwired - November 01, 2016) - Cytobank launched its implementation of CITRUS, an algorithm that accelerates and automates biomarker discovery, on its leading cloud-based data analysis and management platform for collaborative single cell research. Biomarkers are used to measure and monitor patients in clinical trials and assist with the development of effective immunotherapies and other treatments for diseases including cancer.
The high dimensional (HD) analysis resolution enabled by Cytobank's platform empowers teams of researchers to collaboratively analyze cytometry data for an understanding of a patient's response to an immunotherapy treatment at the single cell level. Single cell analysis resolves biological complexity by examining the immune system on a cell by cell basis. HD single cell analysis is growing rapidly due to the broader biological pathway understanding it enables and the recent availability of technologies including Mass Cytometry and Next Generation Sequencing.
Immunotherapy is one of the most promising current developments in cancer care, yet there is significant uncertainty regarding which combinations of therapies safely and effectively work for which patients. Cytobank brings clinical researchers the power of Big Data analytics and scalable on-demand, cloud-based computing to help them quickly answer complicated immunological data analysis questions. CITRUS in Cytobank helps researchers more quickly identify clinical biomarkers which can predict which patients will respond to which treatments.
"With our Mass Cytometry studies and analysis, we often have the impression of assembling a railroad track right in front of the train, and incorporating CITRUS has helped us build the track out faster and further ahead than before. We can now do in two weeks what would otherwise take months of slicing populations into smaller groups to conduct the analysis," said Patrick Reeves, Ph.D., Team Leader, Vaccine & Immunotherapy Center, Massachusetts General Hospital.
"Immunotherapy has great promise, but current treatments are extremely expensive. With the launch of CITRUS, Cytobank is providing clinical researchers with easy access to an innovative tool that identifies biomarkers. If validated these biomarkers could eventually be used as diagnostics in combination with immunotherapies to target and monitor patients for more personalized treatment. This has the potential to improve quality and reduce cost of care," said David Craford, President & CEO, Cytobank.
Cytobank's core analytics platform is already in use in many leading pharmaceutical companies and medical research centers of excellence. The new CITRUS tool is now available in the Cytobank Premium and Enterprise versions.
Cytobank is privately held, backed by the Stanford-StartX Fund, a joint venture between Stanford University and Stanford Hospital & Clinics (SHC), and a group of experienced angel investors.
About Cytobank
Cytobank was founded in 2011 by scientists from Stanford University and is the first cloud-based analysis platform specifically designed for collaborative single cell research. It enables a deep understanding of a patient's immune system at the single cell level -- where the battle between disease and therapy is waged. For more information, please visit https://www.cytobank.org/.
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Contact Information:
Media Contact for Cytobank:
Juliet Travis
Liftoff Communications
5104793818 (office)
5106129622 (mobile)
juliet@liftoffcommunications.com
