BioAffinity Technologies, San Antonio, Tex, has announced the renewal of its collaborative agreement with the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio for research and development of novel cancer diagnostic and therapeutic agents using the company’s porphyrin-based technology platform. The announcement marks the 4th year of the partners’ collaboration.

Leading the university’s research team is Alexander Pertsemlidis, PhD, associate professor of pediatrics and cellular and structural biology at the Greehey Children’s Cancer Research Institute, and director of the cancer biology discipline in the institute’s integrated biomedical sciences graduate program.

Pertsemlidis’ laboratory investigates the roles of non-coding RNAs in cancer pathogenesis and in modulating cancer cell drug response, and is seeking to identify those that are diagnostic markers or therapeutic targets or agents.

Pertsemlidis will work with bioAffinity’s science team, led by Vivienne Rebel, MD, PhD, executive vice president of research and development and chief medical and science officer. Rebel is a cancer stem cell biologist who has done extensive work on the molecular nature of cancer, and previously led her own research team at the UT Health Science Center.

“Our close working relationship and collaboration with the world-class researchers and scientists at the UT Health Science Center continue to move us that much closer to the commercialization of accurate, noninvasive diagnostics and life-saving targeted therapeutics for multiple cancers,” says Maria Zannes, bioAffinity president and CEO. “Dr. Pertsemlidis’ involvement provides bioAffinity with interesting and novel approaches to cancer therapeutics, and a better understanding of the scientific underpinnings of the company’s diagnostic and drug delivery platform.”

The company’s porphyrin-based CyPath bio-label preferentially binds to cancer cells as compared with non-cancer cells. The CyPath-labeled cancer cells display a distinctive fluorescence, which makes cancer detectable by an imaging system. The company’s wholly owned subsidiary, OncoSelect Therapeutics, will build upon the company’s porphyrin-based diagnostics to create targeted therapeutics to deliver chemotherapy drugs directly into cancer cells.

For more information, visit bioAffinity Technologies.