Gentris Corporation is expanding to China, the latest in a series of changes at the company in recent months.
The Morrisville-based provides pharmacogenomic testing services, which involves testing how an individual’s genetic makeup influences the effect of a drug. The company also operates a biorepository for collecting and storing samples from clinical trials.
Gentris on Wednesday said it had opened a genomic biomarker testing lab and a biorepository facility in Shanghai. The lab will operate as Gentris Changhai.
“The launch of Gentris Shanghai is a tremendous milestone for our company,” said Dr. Amelia Wall Warner, Gentris’ chief executive officer. “Gentris is creating an international quality, global organization capable of providing genomic biomarker testing and biobanking services for clinical trials. In addition to commercial services, we are building collaborations with top Chinese research organizations, universities, and companies to accelerate drug development and innovation.”
Gentris launched in 2001.
Last month, Gentris announced that its founder, Michael Murphy, and cancer pharmacogenomics expert Dr. Howard McLeod had joined its board. Murphy also was CEO of the company for several years.
Wall joined Gentris as its president in July.
The company recently announced a partnership with life sciences software firm BioFortis to help accelerate the research of companies that are developing new personalized medicines.
In September, Gentris expanded its genomic biomarker services with an offering called Affymetrix GeneChip Human Transcriptome Array. The company called the GeneChip a “high resolution microarray for gene expression that is designed to empower next-generation expression profiling studies.”
