Culminatum Innovation and Diaceutics Collaborate to Provide Expert Training to Leading Finnish Researchers on Commercializing Biomarkers for Personalized Medicine

DUBLIN, IRELAND--(Marketwire - Jan 22, 2013) - Culminatum Innovation, established to implement the "National Centre of Excellence Programme" in Finland as well as one of the partners of the "Life Markers-project," and Diaceutics, an international personalized medicine consulting and software application firm, today announced a planned workshop providing leading Finnish researchers with expert training on commercialization strategies for biomarkers in PM.

The workshop, to be held Feb 5-6 in Helsinki, Finland will leverage Diaceutics expertise advising pharmaceutical and diagnostic companies on the development of personalized medicine (PM) business strategies to provide leading Finnish clinical and biomarker researchers a framework for understanding biomarker development and commercialization strategies and best practices to follow, with a special emphasis on early stage research strategies.

Culminatum Innovation, as one of the key Life Markers-project partners tasked with developing PM expertise in Finland, concentrates on supporting biomarker commercialization and communication activities. The overall Life Markers-project is expected to create an established working model for biomarker-based diagnostics development and commercialization in Finland.

"We are delighted to work with Culminatum Innovation, and to leverage their expertise in supporting biomarker research and commercialization, with our expertise in best practices in commercialization, to advance PM in Finland," said Peter Keeling, chief executive officer of Diaceutics. "This is an exciting time in Helsinki and across Finland in general, as they are making rapid strides into the PM arena. Time invested in considering a broad range of biomarker insights as well as undertaking some initial PM planning steps can be used to empower a biomarker development area focus and guide biomarker commercialization and future planning and resource needs for researchers in the field."

About Culminatum Innovation: Culminatum Innovation Oy Ltd (Helsinki Region Centre of Expertise) was established in 1995 to implement the national Centre of Expertise programme in the Helsinki region and to serve as a joint instrument of regional development for its owners. Culminatum Innovation Oy Ltd seeks to improve the international competitiveness of the Helsinki region and to encourage the business utilisation of the region's educational, scientific and research resources. For more information, visit http://www.culminatum.fi/en/sivu.php?id=3

About the Life Markers-project: The Life Markers-project ("Elämän merkit" in Finnish) aims at developing diagnostic services based on biomarkers. The project is funded for three years (2011-2013) by the Regional Council of Päijät-Häme from the Southern Finland European Regional Development Fund programme. The aim of the project is to develop and promote the utilization of biobanks in the biomarker research and use of biomarkers in diagnostics. The collaboration project includes work packages for biomarker based leukemia-, ovarian cancer- and endometriosis diagnostics.

The Project partners are Finnish Institute of Molecular Medicine (FIMM), the Hospital District of Varsinais-Suomi, University of Turku, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Culminatum Innovation Oy, and Turku Science Park. For more information, visit http://www.biobusiness.fi/portal/services/lifemarkers/

About Diaceutics: Diaceutics is an international consulting and software application firm that advises pharmaceutical and diagnostic companies on the development of personalized medicine (PM) business strategies. Diaceutics mission is to improve overall return on investment in PM by providing pharmaceutical and diagnostic development teams the knowledge, evidence, tools and operational structure to effectively commercialize and successfully launch targeted therapies. For more information, visit www.diaceutics.com.