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Australian Medical Science and its Commercialisation
Dr Kerry Hegarty, Sienna Cancer Diagnostics.
With today’s exciting news that the Nobel Prize for Medicine has been presented to
the discoverers of telomerase (the enzyme responsible for the maintenance of the
ends of chromosomes), global focus is recast on Sienna Cancer Diagnostics.
Sienna, based in Melbourne’s Bio21 Institute, has a growing team of scientists
dedicated exclusively to the task of developing novel diagnostic technologies to
measure with exquisite sensitivity for telomerase, or more precisely telomerase
activity.
It was a clever proposal some 25 years ago by Australia's first woman Nobel
laureate, Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn and her colleagues that a particular protein had the
role of keeping chromosomes forever young. On the flip-side of eternal youth
however is uncontrolled growth and cancer. It has long been recognised that
telomerase is intricately related to tumour-building events, due to its function of
maintaining the length of the ends of chromosomes. Higher levels of telomerase
activity are directly linked to uncontrolled cell division and tumour growth. Thus,
providing a reliable measure of telomerase activity allows patients and clinicians an
easier, faster, more reliable method to monitor the stage of cancer and identify
appropriate treatments. Sienna’s first telomerase test is targeting the surveillance of
bladder cancer, which is conventionally assessed every four months by invasive
means (i.e. cystoscopy). Sienna’s test expects to change routine practice, requiring
only a urine sample for analysis of telomerase activity to assess disease state.
Future tests based on the telomerase diagnostic are targeting colorectal and prostate
cancer.
Sienna’s Managing Director, Dr. Kerry Hegarty, also believes that based on the
anticipated rate of clinical adoption, Sienna’s test could also ultimately lead to earlier
detection of cancer. Such hopes, shared by clinicians and insurance companies
alike, is based on the view that related enzymatic activity is detectable at earlier
stage than that revealed at later stages by blood in the urine/faeces
(bladder/colorectal cancer), a lump in the breast (breast cancer) or other surrogate
indications.
Sienna’s cancer tests are now in their third year of development, with the third clinical
study to be completed before the end of the year. On the basis of previous studies,
Geron Corporation, based in the Bay Area, California, offered Sienna world-wide
exclusive rights to the related telomerase intellectual property in late 2007. This
transaction allowed Sienna the necessary rights to bring their oncology diagnostic
products to market. With Geron, now one of Sienna’s largest shareholders and the
final clinical study nearing completion, the expectation that this little Aussie biotech
will shortly have its first product on the global market grows with each day.
For further information:
Dr. Kerry A. Hegarty
Managing Director/CEO
Sienna Cancer Diagnostic Ltd
03-9347-0622
