Ignyta Signs Rheumatoid Arthritis Research Collaboration with Leiden University Medical Center

SAN DIEGO -- (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Ignyta, Inc., the personalized medicine company dedicated to improving the diagnosis and treatment of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), lupus and other autoimmune diseases, announced today a collaboration with Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) to assess the epigenetic signatures of patients with early synovitis and rheumatoid arthritis.

“With the signing of this collaboration with LUMC, Ignyta now has a global reach to study patients with undifferentiated arthritis and rheumatoid arthritis, taking us another step closer to achieving our goal of developing a diagnostic assay for patients with early RA,” said Jonathan Lim, M.D., co-founder, chairman and CEO of Ignyta. “LUMC is one of the world’s leading institutions in researching and treating patient with arthritis, and we are pleased to be collaborating with them in this important area of research.”

Professor Tom Huizinga, Head of the Department of Rheumatology at LUMC, said, “Ignyta is pioneering a very interesting technological approach to try to detect early RA. We are excited to be working with them in an effort to improve care for RA patients.”

About RA Diagnosis

Many well-controlled longitudinal studies demonstrate that early detection and treatment of RA leads to improved long-term health outcomes. However, RA can be a difficult disease to differentially diagnose early in its progression. There are no currently available biomarker-based diagnostic tests that have both high specificity and high sensitivity for detecting early RA. Ignyta is employing its epigenomic technologies to develop an epigenetic-based diagnostic test with both high specificity and high sensitivity for detection of early RA.

About Ignyta, Inc.

Ignyta, Inc., located in San Diego, California, is a personalized medicine company developing revolutionary new products and services to customize diagnosis and treatment of patients with rheumatoid arthritis, lupus and other autoimmune diseases.

The company was launched in August 2011 by Jonathan E. Lim, M.D., former president, CEO, and board director of Halozyme Therapeutics, Inc., and Gary S. Firestein, M.D., director of the Clinical and Translational Research Institute and Dean and Associate Vice Chancellor of Translational Medicine at UC San Diego. Ignyta is a trailblazer in the application of “omics” technologies integrated with bioinformatics to the development and commercialization of novel biomarkers and tests for diagnostic and therapeutic applications in autoimmune diseases.

The scientific discoveries that fueled the founding of Ignyta were published in July 2012 in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases (http://bit.ly/QOZ8Zr). In 2012, the company successfully closed a $5.5 million Series B financing led by City Hill Ventures, LLC (http://www.cityhillventures.com/) and Colt Ventures (http://www.coltventures.com/), and a $500,000 capital term loan from Silicon Valley Bank (http://www.svb.com/). For more information, please visit: www.ignyta.com.