Drs. Nadine Charni-Ben Tabassi and Patrick Garnero, Ph.D., D.Sc., are Authors on Monitoring Cartilage Turnover in Current Rheumatology Reports

San Francisco – April 24, 2007 - SYNARC, the world's largest provider of centralized imaging and biochemical marker services to the pharmaceutical industry, announced today that Nadine Charni-Ben Tabassi, PhD, research scientist at SYNARC and Patrick Garnero, Ph.D., D.Sc., general manager and vice president at SYNARC’s biochemical markers laboratory in Lyon, France, are authors in a review article published in Current Rheumatology Reports..

Drs. Charni-Ben Tabassi and Garnero's article reviews developments in assays of biochemical markers of cartilage matrix turnover and studies investigating their use. According to the authors, because of the complexity of the mechanisms involved in arthritic joint damage, a combination of different biochemical markers reflecting the various aspects of synthesis and degradation of matrix molecules will likely provide efficient cartilage turnover monitoring.

They conclude that despite the limitations in the current techniques for diagnosing and monitoring osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis, recent clinical studies indicate that a combination of biochemical markers reflecting the synthesis and degradation of type II collagen may be useful to assess disease progression.

Dr. Garnero has a Ph.D. in Human Biology and Biochemistry from the University of Lyon. He obtained his PhD at the National Institutes of Health and Medical Research (INSERM Unit 403) in Lyon, France and performed his postdoctoral training at Hospital Cantonal in Geneva, Switzerland, and at the Center for Clinical and Basic Research in Copenhagen, Denmark. Dr. Garnero also has a Masters of Science in biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of Marseilles.

Dr. Garnero's research focuses on the development of new biochemical markers of bone, cartilage and synovium turnover, with particular emphasis on collagenous and non-collagenous proteins of extracellular matrices, and the epidemiology, pathogenesis and treatment of osteoporosis. He is also directing quality assurance in biochemical assays for numerous clinical trials and epidemiological studies in osteoporosis and arthritis.

Current Rheumatology Reports provides the views of experts on current advances in rheumatology and includes selections of the most important papers from a variety of original publications.

For a complete list of SYNARC's scientist's and researcher's who have published in many of the world's leading medical journals, please visit the scientific publications page at: http://www.SYNARC.com/about/scipublications.html

About SYNARC

SYNARC’s medical image-analysis, subject-recruitment, and biochemical-marker services enable life-science industry clients to execute clinical trials accurately while decreasing the time, uncertainty, and cost of product development. SYNARC has partnered with industry leaders to bring numerous leading compounds to market across a broad spectrum of therapeutic areas. Our services integrate critical aspects of clinical-trial design and execution, from protocol design and subject recruitment to regulatory liaison on behalf of our clients.  Our expert radiologists and scientists are innovators in all aspects of medical imaging and biochemical markers in drug development, and have pioneered many methods used in today’s clinical trials.  SYNARC has seventeen offices around the world and currently manages over 200 clinical trials.

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