Thermo Fisher Scientific late last month announced it has entered into a partnership agreement with the Terasaki Innovation Center in Los Angeles, to more effectively diagnose and manage transplant patients.Based in Massachusetts, Thermo has a large transplant diagnostics division in West Hills. The company consolidated its four locations in the Valley to one large facility in August of last year at 22801 Roscoe Blvd.The Terasaki center will be close by too, with plans announced in May to occupy the two-story, 50,000-square-foot building at 2100 Erwin St. in Woodland hills — the former Weider building — for developing bioengineered systems and medical devices.The partnership will continue Dr. Paul Terasaki’s research, Thermo said in a statement. Terasaki is a transplant pioneer and founder of One Lambda in Canoga Park, which Thermo acquired in 2012 for $925 million; it is now the company’s transplant diagnostic arm.“There is a tremendous amount of goodwill in the transplant community for what my father did, the people he helped, and the person he was. As the global leader in transplant diagnostics, (Thermo Fisher) will play a key role in helping TIC move the legacy of my father forward,” Dr. Mark Terasaki, chairman of the TIC board, said in a statement.Research will focus on “allograft rejection,” which is when a recipient’s immune system rejects antigens in donor cell tissue, Thermo said.The life science company will have the opportunity to produce new technologies developed by scientists at TIC, to eventually be used by clinicians, laboratories and transplant centers around the world.“We’re proud to partner with the Terasaki Innovation Center to advance our common mission to improve transplant patients’’ lives,” Nicole Brockway, president of the transplant diagnostics business for Thermo Fisher, said in a statement. “This demonstrates our continued commitment to research and innovation to provide new solutions that address the challenges of today and the future.”Thermo Fisher has been a leader in transplant diagnostics for 35 years, the company said. Products developed by Thermo focus on transplant monitoring, laboratory instrumentation and software.
