LabCorp partners with Murdock at Research Campus

KANNAPOLIS — LabCorp Clinical Trials has announced a strategic alliance with the David H. Murdock Research Institute at the N.C. Research Campus.

Esoterix Clinical Trials Services, a division of Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings, today announced the partnership to provide LabCorp clients with access to enhanced assay development services. The Murdock Research Institute owns and operates the Core Laboratory at the Research Campus in Kannapolis, a life sciences hub founded by Dole Food Co. chairman David Murdock.

Assays measure the activity of a drug or other chemical in an organism.

LabCorp already works with Duke University at the Research Campus to operate a biorepository that will store millions of human biological samples for Duke’s medical research study.

Murdock’s science adviser and friend Dr. Andrew Conrad, who serves on the board of the Murdock Research Institute, co-founded the National Genetics Institute in Los Angeles, which he sold to LabCorp.

In LabCorp’s newest venture in Kannapolis, assays developed at the Murdock Research Institute for contracted research will be transferred to LabCorp Clinical Trials laboratories worldwide to support global clinical studies. The agreement also provides a way to commercialize companion diagnostics and other biomarker assays once clinical validation has been established.

“With the addition of DHMRI’s discovery capabilities, LabCorp offers its clinical trials clients the most complete suite of biomarker development tools in the industry,” Dr. David Johnston, senior vice president and global head of clinical trials at LabCorp, said in a press release. “Our collaboration with DHMRI exemplifies our strong commitment to providing cutting-edge services to our clients.”

The services available to clients through the Murdock Research Institute include broad biomarker discovery and proof of concept assay development to support early and late stage drug discovery and development.

The institute uses trans-disciplinary approaches to provide solutions for customers and has capabilities and expertise ranging from profiling at the genetic, biochemical, cellular and in vivo levels to clinical immune system monitoring using multiparameter flow cytometry and multiplexed protein analysis and quantitative gene expression.

LabCorp, an S&P 500 company, is a pioneer in commercializing new diagnostic technologies and the first in its industry to embrace genomic testing. With annual revenues of $5 billion in 2010, more than 31,000 employees worldwide and more than 220,000 clients, LabCorp offers a broad test menu ranging from routine blood analyses to reproductive genetics to DNA sequencing.