University of Florida and Cyntellect Collaborate to Unlock Mysteries of Cancer ...( SAN DIEGO Nov. 20 /- Cyntellect a pri...)

SAN DIEGO, Nov. 20 /PRNewswire/ -- Cyntellect, a privately-held life sciences company leading the development and commercialization of live cell analysis, manipulation and purification systems, announced today that it has entered a research collaboration agreement with the University of Florida Interdisciplinary Center for Biotechnology Research. The agreement will focus on a variety of research areas including the purification and analysis of cancer stem cells (CSCs), rare cells which are believed to be directly involved in propagating cancers. The collaboration will exploit Cyntellect's proprietary LEAP system to purify these CSCs and their progeny without disturbing them from their growing environment -- a feat that should improve scientists' ability to study the natural properties and responses of these cells. Under the agreement, University of Florida will gain access to LEAP and Cyntellect will receive certain payments and commercial rights to discoveries under the collaboration.

"We are very pleased to embark with University of Florida on this quest to gain a better understanding of the molecular machinery, signaling pathways and markers associated with rare cells, such as CSCs. This information will be paramount to innovating novel drug development strategies and developing new cutting-edge diagnostics for crippling diseases, such as cancer," stated Dr. Fred Koller, Cyntellect's Chief Executive Officer. "We believe our LEAP technology offers a truly unique, efficient and highly accurate means of isolating rare cells and making them readily available for subsequent functional, proteomic or genetic analyses."

CSCs are cancer cells (found within tumors or hematological cancers) that possess characteristics associated with normal stem cells, specifically the ability to give rise to all cell types found in a particular cancer sample. These cells are therefore tumorigenic (
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