Belgian firm boosts biomarkers

The Belgian biotechnology firm Peakadilly has been awarded a $2.2 million grant by the government of Belgian state Flanders to accelerate the development of its diagnostic and pharmacodiagnostic biomarker discovery platform. The grant was awarded by IWT-Flanders, the Institute for the Promotion of Innovation by Science & Technology in Flanders, an organization that provides financial support to Flemish companies, research institutes, and individuals in R&D. According to Koen Kas, founder and chief scientific officer of Peakadilly, the company's goal "is to deliver proof of concept for the development of the first high-throughput mass spectrometry-based serum protein-profiling assay as we progress in the development of next-generation molecular diagnostics."