The U.S. Department of Defense is partnering with biopharmaceutical company Berg under a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement with the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences’ (USU) Center for Prostate Disease Research (CPDR) and the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine (HJF) with the aim of finding new treatments for prostate cancer.
Per the partnership, Berg will use its Interrogative Biology™ platform to analyze the CPDR’s supply of prostate cancer data; this platform, according to Berg, integrates molecular data directly from a patient with clinical and demographic information to learn predictive patterns. Berg and the CPDR hope to find more accurate biomarkers and better therapies for prostate cancer patients through this partnership.
“This collaboration is an ideal marriage of the CPDR’s extensive prostate cancer expertise and Berg’s unparalleled ability to drive a deeper level of biological understanding,” Niven R. Narain, co-founder, president, and CTO of Berg, said in a statement. “Together, we have the potential to change the meaning of a prostate cancer diagnosis, and hopefully prognosis, while exemplifying how industry and government can work together to enact real change in public health.”