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QIAGEN, Exosome Diagnostics to develop biofluid sample prep kits
07-25-2013
EDIT CONNECT
SHARING OPTIONS:
GERMANTOWN, Md.—QIAGEN N.V. has begun a partnership with
Exosome Diagnostics Inc. for the development and commercialization of
high-performance sample preparation kits for the processing of nucleic acids
from exosomes. No financial terms were released. The partnership brings
together Exosome Diagnostics' platform technology with QIAGEN consumables and
automation platforms with the potential to enable repeated, real-time
genetic
"snapshots" of disease from patient samples of blood, urine or cerebrospinal
fluid without requiring tissue biopsy. The two companies are
aiming for initial
product launches in the first half of next year.
If the new solutions are
successful, QIAGEN's exclusive
agreement with Exosome Diagnostics will include co-development, manufacturing
and commercialization of a full product
line for the life-science and
translational medicine markets. The first applications of Exosome Diagnostics'
technology are being combined with
QIAGEN's microRNA isolation solution, and
will run on QIAGEN automated instrument platforms.
"QIAGEN
is a global leader in personalized healthcare
solutions, and Exosome Diagnostics is a leading developer in biofluid-based
molecular testing. Together
we expect to create the 'gold standard' in this
emerging field of exosome-based testing, advancing research and improving
healthcare," said Dirk
Loeffert, vice president of Global Product Development
Life Sciences of QIAGEN. "We believe QIAGEN can bring to market the first
comprehensive line of
products to help researchers and pharmaceutical companies
explore and monitor disease status using fresh or frozen biofluids, addressing
the critical
challenge of access to samples. We also intend to co-develop
exosome-based workflows for routine use in personalized healthcare, a
revolutionary
improvement compared to today's widespread dependence on tissue
biopsies, offering the ability to create a new dimension of utility for our
molecular-testing assay portfolio. This approach holds promise to significantly
improve medical care as physicians may be able to use real-time
molecular
information to change the care pathway and bring about disease management."
Exosomes
are a subpopulation of microvesicles that can be
isolated from biofluids such as blood, urine and cerebrospinal fluid.
High-quality RNA and DNA can be
extracted from exosomes, which are shed by
cells under normal and pathological conditions, and purified for analysis.
Exosomes also exist as a key part
of the body's communication system that
carries genetic instructions from cell to cell. They contain nucleic acids and
proteins from their hosts cells
and are generally considered essential for
biomarker discovery when it comes to personalized healthcare diagnostics.
Exosome Diagnostics' proprietary
technology takes advantage of the presence of
nucleic acids in exosomes to detect and measure the levels of genes associated
with cancer,
neurodegenerative, metabolic, infectious and other diseases.
The exosome technology-driven kits from
QIAGEN will enable
users to work with scalable patient sample volumes from as little as 200µ, as
well as RNA capture from frozen, bio-banked fluids.
The kits will also enable
the use of plasma, urine and cerebrospinal fluid without requiring special
stabilization or handling, and streamlined
clinical laboratory workflow for
analysis on PCR, pyrosequencing and next-generation sequencing instruments.
This approach allows such analyses to be
performed without requiring tissue
and/or cells that might involve invasive procedures.
"Our
partnership with QIAGEN brings unprecedented access to
key genetic information directly from a patient's biofluid sample for academic,
biomedical
research and pharmaceutical drug programs around the world," James
McCullough, CEO of Exosome Diagnostics, said in a press release. "We expect
this
partnership, focused on development of a broad range of products, will
help accelerate commercialization of the next generation of minimally invasive,
clinical-grade diagnostics for personalized healthcare."
SOURCE: QIAGEN press release Code: E07241301 Back |
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