Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) today announced that Professor Diether Lambrechts has received an Agilent Thought Leader Award in support of his research in cancer genomics.
Dr. Lambrechts directs the VIB-KU Leuven Center for Cancer Biology in Leuven, Belgium. He is also a professor of human genetics at KU Leuven. Dr. Lambrechts lab focuses on the discovery of genetic or epigenetic markers, either as susceptibility factors for cancer treatment development, as prognostic markers to improve the molecular genetic annotation of cancer, or as markers for targeted cancer therapies.
"Agilent continues to support transformative research of leading academic researchers—in this case, to advance our understanding of the mechanisms of resistance of tumor cells to immunotherapy," said Kamni Vijay, Agilent vice president, and general manager of the company's Genomics Division. "Dr. Lambrechts' research has the potential to identify biomarkers as well as alternative drug targets. He and his team may also be able to show the way toward new companion diagnostics to help oncologists more accurately match patients with the best available treatment."
"I am thrilled to receive this award from Agilent. This kind of support is essential to advance cancer research and discover novel biomarkers for checkpoint immunotherapy in cancer patients," said Dr. Lambrechts. "Cancer immunotherapy has created a paradigm shift in the treatment of advanced stage cancers, but it only delivers durable clinical responses in a relatively small fraction of cancer patients. By applying a combination of single-cell profiling methods we hope to have a major impact on patients receiving these therapies."
The Agilent Thought Leader Award promotes fundamental scientific advances by contributing financial support, products, and expertise to the research of influential thought leaders in the life sciences, diagnostics and chemical analysis space. Information about previous award recipients is available on the Agilent Thought Leader Award webpage.