Biomarker BI-010 looks promising …

Good news just in from The Cambridge Research Institute on the BI-010 biomarker work Dr Hayley Whitaker and her team are working on.  Dr Whitaker reports:

Dr Hayley Whitaker - looking for success with the BI-010 biomarker for cholangiocarcinoma

Dr Hayley Whitaker – looking for success with the BI-010 biomarker for cholangiocarcinoma

“We have identified a protein, BI-010, that is raised in cholangiocarcinoma but not inflammatory cells or normal cells. Using funds from AMMF we have so far produced large amounts of pure protein which will allow us to develop a test to detect BI-010 in blood.

All of our preliminary work was using cholangiocarcinoma tissue that had been surgically removed. However, we want to develop a test to improve the speed and accuracy of cholangiocarcinoma diagnosis so we need to test BI-010 on biliary brushing that are normally used for diagnosis and this work is ongoing.

Finally, we think BI-010 might have potential to be targeted as a treatment for cholangiocarcinoma using antibodies, just like Herceptin targets Her2 in breast cancer. We are doing some preliminary validation work to confirm this and applying for additional funds for this exciting new arm of the project.”

The team hope to make some really huge strides in the coming months, and are all very excited about this project, as is everyone at AMMF!

To read more about the initial BI-010 work, click here

To read about AMMF’s grant to the Cambridge Research Institute, click here

We will be following this project keenly, and will update as and when we hear further.                 

July 2013