TRONDHEIM, Norway, Feb 15, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Bruker has installed two nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometers for metabolic profiling at the new MR Metabolomics Laboratory at the NTNU hospital campus in Trondheim. Metabolic profiling of tissue samples and biofluids has the potential to transform the way cancer diagnostics and treatments are optimized for individual patients. The new NMR systems will enable scientists at NTNU's Faculty of Medicine, working in partnership with clinicians at St. Olavs University Hospital, to investigate tissue samples and biofluids from patients taking part in studies, or from model systems of the same diseases. Researchers will use the NMR instrumentation for rapid, high-throughput analyses, aiming for characterisation, treatment planning and monitoring of cancer patients. The ultimate goal is to investigate whether this methodology can provide clinicians with more detailed diagnostic information that can improve treatment for an individual patient.
To help realize the vision of enhancing patient diagnostics and treatment, NTNU has partnered with Bruker, the world's leading provider of NMR spectroscopy instrumentation. NTNU and Bruker have signed a research collaboration agreement to jointly develop, optimize and implement NMR cancer diagnostics and prognostic modelling. One of the goals for the NTNU - Bruker collaboration is to develop products that will progress MR high-throughput screening towards a routine clinical setting.
"By combining bioinformatics and medical expertise with advanced metabolomics technology, NTNU is at the forefront of developing innovative diagnostic tools for the future," said Dr. Manfred Spraul, Director of NMR Applications at Bruker in Germany. He continued: "Bringing metabolic profiling into a hospital setting with long traditions for developing and integrating new medical technology is a great start for innovations that potentially can improve patient care and reduce cost. We look forward to working with NTNU and the new MR Metabolomics Lab on these opportunities."
The NTNU MR Metabolomics Laboratory will be headed by Professor Ingrid S. Gribbestad, a leading researcher in MR technology and biomolecular medicine. Her research team has worked with MR cancer tissue characterization for a decade, and has pioneered characterization of breast cancer using this methodology. Cancer metabolomics takes into account all of the environmental factors that influence biology, including drugs, diets, protein activities and gene expressions. The NMR metabolic fingerprint of each cancer sample can be obtained in a few minutes, providing a potential future high-throughput molecular diagnostic tool. The group showed recently, for the very first time, that combining metabolite profiles with gene expression profiles from the same sample created new subclasses of breast cancer with unique characteristics.
Professor Ingrid Gribbestad commented: "Because of the close links between clinicians and scientists, and the focus on medical technology, NTNU and St. Olavs University Hospital have created a unique facility for advances in this field. Here, new technologies and methods have a short cut to clinical testing."
About Bruker Corporation
Bruker Corporation (NASDAQ: BRKR) is a leading provider of high-performance scientific instruments and solutions for molecular and materials research, as well as for industrial and applied analysis. For more information: www.bruker.com.
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SOURCE: Bruker Corporation
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Dr. Thorsten Thiel
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