sphingotec Announces Collaboration with Mayo Clinic for Evaluation and Use of Biomarkers to Improve Diagnosis of Certain Diseases, Including Kidney Disease, Breast Cancer, Sepsis, and Cardiovascular Disease

By Gina Chiri-Osmond • December 4, 2017

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sphingotec GmbH, a biotechnology company that develops biomarkers for the detection and management of diseases, has recently signed an agreement with Mayo Clinic to collaborate on the evaluation and use of several biomarkers that may improve the diagnosis of certain disease states, including kidney disease, breast cancer, sepsis, and cardiovascular disease.

Through this agreement, Mayo Clinic will evaluate the biomarkers proenkephalin (PENK) and three others for research and potential routine clinical use. PENK is the only blood-based biomarker that provides timely information on the current status of kidney function; it signals worsening and/or improvement in kidney function better than established methods, particularly in critically ill patients.

“Biomarkers like PENK provide the potential to guide treatment and help patients at an increased risk of kidney failure,” says Andreas Bergmann, Ph.D., founder of sphingotec GmbH. “This collaboration with Mayo Clinic will help provide research and diagnostics for all four assays that we hope will aid in curing and ultimately prevent life-threatening diseases.”

Other biomarkers discovered at sphingotec labs that Mayo Clinic will evaluate include:

• proneurotensin (pro-NT) for the risk assessment of developing breast cancer in women.
• adrenomedullin (bio-ADM) for the prediction of shock in patients with sepsis.
• high-sensitivity growth hormone (vr-hGH) for the prediction of cardiovascular disease in men.

“With this collaboration, Mayo Clinic can serve as a U.S.-based testing center for any physician or scientist interested in evaluating these assays for their own research questions,” says Leslie Donato, Ph.D., clinical chemist and co-director of Cardiovascular Laboratory Medicine at Mayo. “We can run their samples on these analytically validated tests, and together, we can help determine the clinical utility for these biomarkers, ultimately better serving all of our patients.”

About sphingotec

The biotechnology company sphingotec GmbH, headquartered in Hennigsdorf, Germany, was founded in 2002. sphingotec aims to reduce or eliminate the risk of serious diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and kidney conditions. The process starts before the disease has actually developed: using biomarkers to indicate susceptibility for a specific disease provides healthy individuals with the knowledge that they are at risk. What makes the approach so special is that the biomarkers also create a starting point for preventative strategies at the same time, as evidence-based recommendations on how to reduce risks are always an integral part of the complete concept. Further information can be found on our website at www.sphingotec.de.

Gina Chiri-Osmond

Gina Chiri-Osmond is a Marketing Channel Manager at Mayo Clinic Laboratories.