Ventana Medical Systems, Inc., a Member of the Roche Group, is a global leader in tissue diagnostic innovations for anatomic pathology. This video reveals the true story of a quest to improve the standard of care for a single patient -- a quest that began a new era in cancer diagnostics. Discover how automated staining is empowering histology labs worldwide to deliver prompt, personalized diagnostic information.

Alan Nelson is heading the Predictive Health Analytics Initiative that aims to change the paradigm in healthcare from treating late stage disease to early diagnosis and preventive therapies that are cost-effective. He served as the Executive Director of the Biodesign Institute at ASU and holds professorships in Bioengineering and physics. He is the founder and CEO of three companies, the most recent being VisionGate, the innovator of the LuCED lung cancer early detection test. VisionGate was awarded the start-up of the year award at the recent Governors’ celebration of innovation. Alan has a PhD in Biophysics from Berkeley, holds 66 issued patents, and has published over 100 scholarly papers in biomedical imaging.

Raymond N. DuBois, MD, PhD , executive director of The Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University explains the history and the value of biodesign and shares a look at the bioinspired, use inspired, research being done by innovative teams at The Biodesign Institute in their three focus areas of health, energy, and security. 

David S. Alberts, MD. Throughout his career, Dr. Alberts has focused on translational cancer prevention and treatment research. The emphasis of his laboratory-based and clinical research has been on the chemoprevention and treatment of such pervasive and potentially deadly diseases as cancers of the breast, colon, ovary, and skin. He has been the UA Cancer Center’s director since 2005.  Under Dr. Alberts’  leadership the extensive research portfolio of The University of Arizona Cancer Center includes more than $60 million in annual research funding, including four large NCI interdisciplinary programs, and two Special Programs of Research Excellence, one in gastrointestinal cancers and one in lymphoma.  Clinically, Dr. Alberts pioneered new treatments for advanced ovarian cancers, including in vitro tumor cell chemosensitivity testing for personalized medicine strategies, intraperitoneal  chemotherapy , and maintenance chemotherapy. Presently, Dr. Alberts helps to coordinate Phase I and II and pharmacokinetic drug studies at The University of Arizona Cancer Center for molecularly-targeted chemopreventive agents. His laboratory research is concentrated on the evaluation of new surrogate endpoint biomarkers for cancer prevention trials with a special focus on precursor lesions for bladder, breast, colon, cervical, endometrial, ovarian, prostate, and skin cancers, using quantitative histopathology (i.e. karyometric) approaches.  His NCI funded drug and diagnostics research has resulted in more than two dozen patents and the co-founding of five Arizona pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.

Global Cancer Diagnostics Inc. is a medical laboratory established to confidentially diagnose lung cancer at its earliest stages. It is our belief that many lung cancer victims will benefit by early diagnosis and treatment. 

Jennifer Kehlet Barton, Ph.D., Associate Vice President for Research and Professor, Biomedical Engineering at The University of Arizona was named the 2012 Michael A. Cusanovich Bioscience Educator of the Year by the Arizona Bioindustry Association. Dr. Barton was nominated by students, past and present with supporting nominations by her co-workers, and selected for this honor by an independent panel of judges from across the state of Arizona for her contributions to all aspects of bioscience education. They include her skill as a course instructor, her compassion and patience as a mentor and adviser to undergraduate and graduate students, her strategic leadership in creating a learning environment and career path for students via her development and leadership of the UA Biomedical Engineering Programs, her recent role as Assistant Director of the BIO5 Institute, and her participation with industry in a broad range of industry association and community groups.

Arbsource was founded to transform wastewater treatment from a costly energy liability into a valuable resource through state-of-the-art microbial electrochemical cell technologies. Our team includes domain experts in the water industry passionate about contributing to a safe, secure, and sustainable water infrastructure with our award-winning Arbcell biotechnology.

NuvOx Pharma is a biotechnology company based in Tucson, Arizona with a novel patent portfolio allowing it to develop an innovative platform of dodecafluoropentane (DDFP)-based oxygen therapeutics to treat a host of human conditions. Founded in 2008, NuvOx Pharma has demonstrated therapeutic feasibility in radiation-resistant cancer, hemorrhagic shock, traumatic brain injury, myocardial infarction, retinopathy and stroke. Due to inherent structure of DDFP, a very stable and relative lack of inter-molecular attractive forces, this perfluorocarbon is known to carry large payloads of oxygen in the bloodstream. The main advantage to using DDFP is that it is a liquid at room temperature, but expands to the gas state in the body. Therefore, upon intravenous injection the transition of DDFP from a liquid to a gas in the bloodstream allows for ~600 times increased oxygen transport compared to Hemoglobin.

Leaders from across Greater Phoenix share what is happening here on the frontiers of personalized medicine and a unique gene found here in Arizona that gives us a distinct competitive advantage.

Iron Horse Diagnostics was honored with the 2013 AZBio Fast Lane Award from the Arizona Bioindustry Association for Accelerating the Development of New ALS Diagnostic Tests. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (also known as ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease) is a devastating disease that is nearly always fatal within 5 years of onset. Due to similarities in their symptomatic progression is it difficult to differentiate ALS from several other disease mimics (motor neuropathy, progressive muscle atrophy, etc.) until it is too late for intervention to have any real effect. With an earlier diagnosis, and therefore earlier intervention, current clinical care may increase the lifespan of these patients and additional drug therapies that are likely to be introduced to the market could be more rapidly initiated. Not only might life expectancy increase, but patients would be given the chance for a higher quality of life for a longer duration due to more rapid inclusion of the patient into multi-disciplinary care treatment offered at specialized ALS clinics.