Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) today announced that , M.D., Ph.D., of the Mount Sinai Health System, has received an Agilent Thought Leader Award in recognition of his groundbreaking work in molecular and translational pathology. Dr. Cordon-Cardo is the Irene Heinz Given and John LaPorte Given Professor and chair of Pathology at Mount Sinai. The Agilent award will support ongoing cancer research conducted by Dr. Cordon-Cardo and his team. They are using a combination of genomic and proteomic technologies from Agilent to characterize tumor-initiating cells with stem-cell-like properties derived from solid tumors taken from subjects with various types of cancer. The goal of studying this sub-population of cancer cells is to better understand their ability to resist drug treatments and metastasize. "Our goal is to bring in the outstanding measurement tools from Agilent to develop new diagnostic and predictive biomarkers," said Dr. Cordon-Cardo. "This, in turn, will provide each patient a better chance of cure by defining their disease and optimizing treatment while offering a superior quality of life. This collaboration offers a unique opportunity to translate data into knowledge that maximizes personalized patient management, treatment efficacy and clinical outcomes." "We are very pleased to support Dr. Cordon-Cardo's pioneering work in cancer stem cell research at one of the largest departments of pathology in the United States," said Jacob Thaysen, vice president and general manager of Agilent's Diagnostics and Genomics group. "Molecular characterization of these cells, using Agilent technologies and solutions, could result in the development of new cancer diagnostics."

The Agilent Thought Leader Award promotes fundamental scientific advances by contributing financial support, products and expertise to the research of influential thought leaders in the life sciences, diagnostics and chemical analysis. Information about previous award recipients is available at Agilent's Thought Leader Award program website.