16. Januar 2020 Indivumed: IndivuType Global Cancer Database in Italy

Tor Vergata University Hospital (“Tor Vergata”) and Indivumed GmbH (“Indivumed”) today announced that they have entered into a collaboration in the field of personalized oncology.

Under the terms of the agreement, Indivumed will analyze a comprehensive multi-omics profile including genomics (WGS), transcriptomics, proteomics and phosphoproteomics from selected Tor Vergata cases. This information, together with other cases already existing in Indivumed’s IndivuType database, will be used to discover new mechanisms and biomarkers in cancer.

“We are very excited with this collaboration. Having access to this multi-omics profile will allow us to understand better the disease and develop research projects that can have an impact in the way we treat patients in the future.” said Dr. Gerry Melino, Principal Investigator and Head of Biochemistry at Tor Vergata University. "The future requires international cooperation involving not only local Hospitals like Tor Vergata and San Carlo Nancy, but worldwide hospitals and research centres,"said Orazio Schillaci, Rector at Tor Vergata University.

The generalization of genomics-based approaches in cancer research and clinical practice represented a great advancement towards personalized medicine in recent years, but it has also shown its limitations. “Genomics only” can’t explain the differences in disease progression and patient response to certain drugs, and therefore multi-omics approaches based in systems biology are being increasingly used by researchers to identify molecular patterns associated with disease.

“We continue the ambitious expansion of our global clinical network, and today we are thrilled to announce this agreement with Tor Vergata University Hospital, our first clinical partner in Italy,” said Dr. Hartmut Juhl, CEO of Indivumed. “We are looking forward to enriching the IndivuType database with their contribution, especially in the field of liver and pancreatic cancers, where there is an urgent need for better diagnosis and treatment.”

Within the scope of the agreement, researchers at Tor Vergata University Hospital will also be able to leverage Indivumed’s advanced analytics and Artificial Intelligence capabilities for specific projects.