Stemina Biomarker appoints new Board member and prepares to commercialize autism diagnostic products

Stemina Biomarker appoints new Board member and prepares to commercialize autism diagnostic products

stemina logoStemina Biomarker Discovery Inc. today announced that Heiner Dreismann, PhD, former head of Roche Molecular Diagnostics, has joined the Board of Directors to bring his extensive experience in commercialization strategy to the company as it prepares to go to market in early 2018 with its autism diagnostic test panel. Stemina, through its neurological disorders division, NeuroPointDX, is transforming diagnosis and more precise treatment of neurological disorders using its proprietary metabolomics platform technology to diagnose disorders based on the patient’s metabolism. The company’s proprietary technology is already being implemented in the largest clinical study ever conducted of the metabolism of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the Children’s Autism Metabolome Project (CAMP).

Dr. Dreismann, former President and CEO of Roche Molecular Systems and Global Head of Business Development for Roche Diagnostics, led the strategic vision process and established a new strategic architecture for Roche Diagnostics. “We are so pleased that Dr. Dreismann has agreed to join our board to advise us on commercialization strategy for our diagnostic products,” said Stemina’s CEO, Elizabeth Donley. “NeuroPointDX will revolutionize the way autism and other neurological disorders are diagnosed and treated by measuring differences in metabolism of children with ASD across the spectrum.”

“I am excited to join the Stemina Board of Directors as the company has developed and is poised to commercialize a first-in-class, unique product for diagnosis of ASD in children as young as 18 months,” said Dreismann. “Neurological disorders are notoriously difficult to diagnose and treat. NeuroPointDX will greatly improve the precision of diagnosing these disorders.”

“Neurological disorders like autism and schizophrenia, which have historically been defined based on behavioral findings, are now recognized to be comprised of a variety of metabolic and genetic subtypes. Using our proprietary technology, we have identified a series of subtypes of ASD and other neuro-developmental disorders. We have validated a number of these through the CAMP study,” Donley said. “We expect that our approach will provide important information for diagnosis and more precise treatment as well as opportunities to collaborate with drug developers on targeted therapies and clinical trials.”

The CAMP study has enrolled more than 900 patients to date. Enrollment of children ages 18 to 48 months comprised of three groups of children: those with ASD, others with developmental delay but not ASD, and typically-developing children, continues at eight sites across the country. Visit https://neuropointdx.com/camp/ for more information. The CAMP study has validated a panel of metabolic subtypes previously identified in pilot studies of banked blood samples at the MIND Institute at UC-Davis and the Arkansas Children’s Hospital Research Institute.