• Asuragen (Austin, Texas) reported the launch of its new high-content microRNA (miRNA) service. The service enables comprehensive analysis of miRNA expression profiles from published miRNA sequences and a vastly expanded set of unpublished candidate miRNAs, the company said. The first-generation platform for Asuragen's DiscovArray miRNA expression service uses a new Ambion array that is custom-manufactured by Affymetrix and designed specifically for miRNA expression analysis. The array contains features representing validated Sanger miRBase content in combination with over 12,000 exploratory human miRNAs. Asuragen is a molecular biology service provider and oncology molecular diagnostic company.

• CAD Sciences (White Plains, New York) reported the release of a suite of motion correction (MC) algorithms that expand on the existing MC capabilities that have been embedded in CAD Sciences' products since their commercial launch. The new MC suite represents an upgrade in MC processing as compared to competitive solutions and was developed through a combination of new algorithm creation and modification of existing technologies by CAD Sciences' scientific team. The MC suite is optimized for specific scanning applications that include, among others, breast MRI, prostate MRI, lung CT and lung MRI. CAD Sciences specializes in MRI-CAD for breast, prostate and other organs.

• CompuMed (Los Angeles) reported that it has expanded its support of PACS/DICOM in its OsteoGram software. The picture archiving and communication systems (PACS) is standard for the interoperability and storage of medical imaging and typically supports the digital imaging and communications in medicine (DICOM) image format. OsteoGram 1.36 includes the capability to send images to PACS systems directly from the OsteoGram report module, as well as the ability to query and retrieve images from PACS directly. This enhances support for PACS/DICOM implementations and makes sending DICOM reports faster and easier. CompuMed is a medical informatics company that makes diagnostic software solutions.

• Power3 Medical Products (Houston) has concluded a 60-patient blinded validation study of its BC-SeraPro early detection blood serum breast cancer test. For the study, Power3 used its extensive patient serum sample bank to generate a statistical model that differentiates between breast cancer and control profiles. Sixty blinded patient samples were then tested against this statistical model. Twenty-two biomarkers were used to obtain the results from this study. By applying decision tree analysis, a method used to model disease and control patient demographics at the level of individual biomarkers, Power3 reported results of 97% sensitivity and 93% specificity. In addition, the company used linear discriminant Analysis, a more robust and flexible method that uses some or all biomarkers in a panel rather than individually, which achieved 80% sensitivity and 87% specificity. In addition to the BC-Sera Pro test, Power3 is currently evaluating its NuroPro early detection blood serum test for Parkinson's disease in a 500-patient validation study. Power3 is a proteomics company specializing in early detection diagnostic tests for breast cancer and neurodegenerative disease.