Area Firm’s Plant Research Leads to Cancer Detection

Aug. 5–Orion Genomics’ Methylscope technology was designed to map

the genes of plants, but it’s proved useful in detecting changes in human genes.

When Nathan Lakey joined Orion Genomics LLC, he had no idea he’d be working to improve early detection and treatment of cancer. He merely expected to help feed the world.

But the company’s Methylscope technology, which was designed to map the genes of plants, also has proved useful in detecting chemical changes in human genes. It can find these changes, called epigenetic DNA methylation, which Orion refers to as the “second code” of life.

Lakey, who is president and chief executive of the midtown-based firm, said it is using the Methylscope to find changes in human DNA that are associated with particular types of cancer. The company is examining samples of diseased and healthy tissue from individuals’ cancerous organs in order to find the differences. That should provide a roadmap for diagnostic tests that can detect cancer before it has had time to do much damage.

The first of these tests, which Orion calls Methylscreens, might be on the market in three years, Lakey said.

And that’s not all. Orion scientists believe the same technology can show details of the genetic pathways being used by cancer cells, so that they can be compared with the ways various chemotherapy drugs work. Doctors could use this information to prescribe the most effective treatments right away, when the best health outcomes are possible.

This “is the hottest field of cancer research right now,” Lakey said. And Orion came to it almost accidentally, by virtue of having licensed DNA methylation technology for use in plants.

Orion set out to provide plant genome information to scientists working on genetically modified crops — which many people believe eventually will boost global food production. When controversy over genetically modified crops began to stifle the market, Orion’s founders went looking for a new approach, Lakey said. The sequencing of the human genome made the company’s cancer work possible.

Orion licenses its core technology from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories in New York. It also has made several internal advances, for which patents are pending, Lakey said.

The company still works on plants. And such projects bring in about $4 million in annual revenue, which is reinvested in the cancer business.

“One of the biggest problems in the world isn’t cancer, but it’s food shortage. And I think what we’re doing (will) have a tremendous impact in terms of feeding people,” Lakey said. “But it’s great that we can help affect a killer like cancer, too.”

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