Azenta, Inc. (Nasdaq: AZTA) today announced a strategic partnership with the PRECEDE Foundation, an international, multi-institutional collaborative focused on early detection and prevention of pancreatic cancer. Azenta will provide secure storage of study samples in its biorepository and streamline logistics, enabling PRECEDE researchers to focus on advancing diagnostics and patient survival.
Pancreatic cancer is the third-leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States. Each year, more than 66,500 people are diagnosed, yet fewer than 15,000 survive, reflecting a five-year survival rate of just 13%. This lags far behind other major cancers such as prostate (97%), breast (91%), and colon (65%). The key difference is that while those cancers benefit from effective early detection, pancreatic cancer currently does not.
PRECEDE, the Pancreatic Cancer Early Detection Consortium, was established to change this trajectory. Its mission is to improve screening, risk modeling, and prevention for individuals with a hereditary risk of developing pancreatic cancer, with the ambitious goal of increasing the five-year survival rate from 13% to 50% within the next decade. PRECEDE brings together more than 60 leading academic medical centers worldwide and has built the world’s largest high-risk patient cohort, combining longitudinal clinical data with biospecimen tracking to advance innovation in early detection.
“Early detection is the key to survival in pancreatic cancer,” said Kathi Shea, Chief Client Solutions Officer, Repository at Azenta. “We’re proud to support PRECEDE’s groundbreaking work by safeguarding and managing their critical samples in our biorepository, helping ensure the continuity of their research every step of the way. Through this partnership, Azenta is helping to drive the development of tools and strategies for earlier diagnosis, with the potential to save thousands of lives each year. This partnership highlights Azenta’s strategic role in the growing biorepository resources for the clinical and diagnostic research market, reinforcing its position as a trusted partner for high-impact life science research.”
Azenta’s global expertise in sample management ensures the quality and continuity needed to support PRECEDE’s mission, allowing researchers to focus fully on discovery and innovation.
The PRECEDE Foundation will host its Annual Meeting in November, where international experts will convene to share progress and further collaborative strategies. To learn more about the Foundation’s mission and ongoing work, please visit www.precedefoundation.org.
