GeneCentric Therapeutics, a company making precision medicine more precise through RNA-based diagnostics, announced the launch of its EXpressCTSM (Expression Signatures Through Circulating Tumor Signals) liquid biopsy platform that allows the value of tissue RNA expression and epigenomics to be realized in liquid biopsy. EXpressCT expands the application of the company’s pipeline of RNA-based gene expression signatures and diagnostic tests to cell-free DNA (cfDNA) liquid biopsy samples, including blood and urine.
While liquid biopsy enables the diagnosis or analysis of tumors using a blood or fluid sample rather than a solid tissue biopsy, it currently focuses on finding genetic alterations and not the expression of genes. This narrow focus limits its utility because important measures including molecular subtypes and common biomarkers for targeted therapy, such as HER2 or antibody-drug conjugates, are not measured by most assays, delaying diagnosis and administration of life-saving therapeutics. Until recently, liquid biopsy has not been available to infer gene expression, which can yield greater insight into tumor biology and support the development of critical diagnostics.
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“Today, most assays for cancer screening, minimal residual disease detection, and therapy selection look for DNA alterations, but EXpressCT is a new technology for adapting any RNA expression test to liquid biopsy,” said Michael Milburn, PhD, President and CEO of GeneCentric Therapeutics. “Our technology provides greater diagnostic utility of cfDNA beyond merely profiling variants and supports our vision for a liquid-first future. EXpressCT is a powerful development tool, and we have so far developed liquid biopsy cfDNA signature tests for pancreatic, lung, breast, and colorectal cancers.”
Beyond the GeneCentric pipeline, the EXpressCT platform can be used to translate existing solid tumor biopsy gene signatures and develop new tests.
“We are actively partnering with companies with suitable liquid biopsy assays to explore the most robust assay platform in which to mount our EXpressCT informatics technology,” added Kirk Beebe, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer at GeneCentric. “Our technology is platform agnostic to ensure synergistic commercial goals with our partners. We believe EXpressCT will make it possible to bring nearly any expression trait, such as gene signatures or receptor status, to liquid biopsy. In addition to pioneering IP on the informatics approaches, we have a deep pipeline of well-characterized RNA gene expression tissue tests to make this a reality.”
SOURCE: Businesswire