Special Scientific Talk - "Developing Biomarkers in the Era of Precision Medicine: Promises from the Proteome" by Dr. Patrick Tremblay

ABSTRACT

Fueled by the human genome project, precision medicine approaches have mostly involved the targeting of genomic elements to gain insight into the trajectory of diseases and provide optimized treatments to patients.  However, these genomic strategies provide a single dimensional view on the complexity of diseases and, as such, may present limited applicability to support the prediction of disease trajectories and treatment outcomes.  Right in the footsteps of the genome revolution, novel sensitive platforms have emerged that further the dynamic understanding of the disease dimensionalities. In particular, advances in mass spectrometric technologies have propelled proteomics and empowerd the rapid deployment of easy to deploy multiplex protein panels that can improve clinical algorithms for diseases such as cancer, diabetes and neurodegenerative diseases.  We will present case studies that underline the power of the proteomic approached.

Xpresys LungTM, a breakthrough noninvasive blood test, provides a solution for the overtreatment of benign lung nodules. Initially developed using shotgun proteomics using unbiased discovery, this test now measures the relative abundance of targeted proteins from multiple pathways associated with lung cancer, using a sensitive platform called multiple reaction monitoring mass spectroscopy (MRM-mass spec) and improves on the diagnostic algorithm of lung cancer, avoiding unnecessary risks to patients and important costs to the healthcare system.

SHORT BIOGRAPHY

Patrick is Corporate Development Officer at Caprion where he leads mergers and acquisitions and is responsible for the development of innovative biomarkers for cancer, diabetes and tuberculosis. He also cofounded Neomed and the Personalized Medicine Partnership for Cancer of Quebec.  Prior to joining Caprion, he held positions of Executive-in-Residence at the venture capital firm Pappas Ventures (USA), of Vice-President of R&D at BioAxone and of Director of Pharmacology at Neurochem where he developed novel drugs for Alzheimer’s disease and spinal cord injury.  He was also Assistant Professor in Neurology at the University of California in San Francisco (CA, USA).  Patrick holds a Ph.D. degree in molecular biology from the University of Montréal (Qc) and was post-doctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute (Goettingen, Germany).