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UroCor Grants and
Scientific Collaborations
To complement UroCor’s disease management focused approach to urology, the R&D Group has established several key relationships with academic, corporate,
and government institutions with similar diagnostic and therapeutic interests to our own. UroCor has also entered into a variety of license and option agreements with academic centers and biotechnology
companies covering technologies that align with its strategic product development efforts. These projects cover molecular and immunological approaches to development of algorithms, diagnostic and therapeutic
bioreagents for prostate cancer, benign prostatic hypertrophy, interstitial cystitis, and bladder cancer.
- The p53 SBIR Phase II, NCI funded bladder cancer grant (~$700,000.00), and includes collaborations with six leading academic collaborators.
- Dr. Ihor Sawczuk, Columbia University
- Dr. H. Barton Grossman, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
- Dr. Adam Kible, Washington University of St. Louis
- Dr. Jim Montie, University of Michigan
- Dr. Bill Ellis, University of Washington
- Dr. Ed Messing, University of Rochester
- Currently, the University of Washington, Dr. William Ellis, will be assessing the new p53 test on bladder cytology specimens from patients with active
disease under a Phase II SBIR Grant from the National Cancer Institute. In the past, Dr. Robert Vessella of this institution has worked with UroCor’s R&D group on the clinical value of RT-PCR to
detect prostate cancer metastasis in the blood of patients.
- At Columbia University, Dr. Ihor Sawczuk, is conducting a prospective bladder cancer cytology clinical trial to assess the entire UroCor bladder cytology
product line. The study is in its second year and has already generated positive results on the DD23 biomarker that have been presented at an International meeting. He is also evaluating cytology, DNA
ploidy and the p53 molecular assay.
- Dr. George L. Wright, chairman of microbiology and immunology, of the Eastern Virginia Medical School has been an active research collaborator whose
laboratory has worked on several projects related to BPH and prostate cancer from 1992-99.
- Also, UroCor received a 2.5 year Department of Defense (DOD) award (~$120,000.00) with Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions to study the utility of image
analysis based QNG and artificial neural networks to predict prostate cancer disease outcomes using pre-treatment biopsy, imaging and serum test data.
- Between 1992-2000, our group received nine Phase I and Phase II SBIR-NIH awards and one DOD subcontract, totaling more than $1.8 Million in support of
R&D in fields related to our urology product development strategy.
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