Studies of 2022

Micro-CT analysis for IPMN and pancreatic cancer

Reea Ahola (Tays)

The incidence of pancreatic cancer is around 1000 per year in Finland. About 90 % of pancreatic cancers are pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas (PDAC). Intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms (IPMN) are premalignant lesions found in pancreas. IPMN carry a risk for malignant transformation to PDAC. Prognosis of PDAC is poor and traditionally used prognostic factors offer limited information about prognosis on PDAC. Better understanding of prognostic factors may be useful in developing new treatment strategies for PDAC. Micro-computed X-ray tomography is a high-resolution 3D imaging method, which is well suited for imaging small tissue samples. This imaging method has been studied with promising results for example in the evaluation of breast cancer specimens. The aim of this study is to investigate whether micro-CT imaging technique could be utilized in the analysis of pancreatic specimens and provide additional information about tissue architecture and prognosis of IPMN and PDAC.

GeneFusion

Biocartis

Gene fusions represent an important class of somatic alterations in cancer. They have become important biomarkers for cancer diagnosis, prognosis, and targeted therapies due to their inherent expression in tumor tissue alone. Clinical Study is to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of the Idylla™ GeneFusion Panel 1.x against the comparators chosen as per the intended purpose.

Refining genetic susceptibility for age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in Finns

Biogen MA Inc.

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a leading cause of blindness in older adults and is projected to affect 288 million people by the year 2040. Late-stage AMD occurs in two forms, wet AMD, characterized by neovascularization, and dry AMD, characterized by geographic atrophy and degeneration of the neuroretina. While treatments exist for the wet form of late AMD (approximately 10% of late AMD patients), they are not effective for all wet AMD patients, and no therapies are currently approved for dry AMD, which represents most AMD patients, approximately 90%. The complement factor H (CFH) gene locus is well established as having a strong association with AMD. In this study, Biogen aims to further validate genes at the CFH locus for relevance in AMD by combining genetic data with proteomic data in AMD patients and control group.