ITUS Corp (NASDAQ:ITUS) has announced the formation of a new fully owned subsidiary called Anixa Diagnostics Corporation. The new unit will be in charge of developing and marketing non-invasive, early cancer screening tests. Dr. Amit Kumar will take over as the Executive Chairman of the new subsidiary and sum up as the Vice-Chairman of ITUS.
Robert Berman, the President and CEO of ITUS Corp said Dr. Kumaris has a lot of experience in cancer diagnostics and is credited for being one of the leading professionals in the use of innovative technology for early screening of cancer. Dr. Kumaris has initiated and guided several cancer diagnostic tests through the process of approval and commercialization. Berman says the company stands to immensely benefit from Dr. Kumar’s expertise in addition to other leading scientists in addition to known cancer treating and research institutions. This will enable the company to quickly introduce non-invasive cancer diagnostic tests into the market.
Dr. Kumar holds has a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Occidental College and graduated with honors. After finishing his studies at Stanford University and California Institute of Technology he went on to pursue a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the California Institute of Technology. After finishing his Ph.D, he went on to earn a post-doctoral fellowship at Harvard University.
In his long standing career, Dr. Kumar has worked as board member, an executive and founder of several biotechnology companies. He served as CombiMatrix Corporation President and CEO between September of 2001 and June of 2010. He is known for turning the company public as well as launching and developing a number of genomic diagnostics tests. After leaving CombiMatrix, Dr. Kumar has been extensively engaged in studying data, evaluating the process of scientific research so as to create cancer screening tests that can warrant launching a mew specialty company.
ANIXA will mainly concentrate on two technologies which will be applied in the company’s first cancer screening test. One of these technologies utilizes a biomarker that has been tested and proven to be efficient and effective in detecting early cases of lung cancer. The second technology will mainly focus on biomarkers that are used on detecting early cases of solid tumors.
