Exosomes in frozen blood samples could hold key to biomarker discovery
Collaboration agreement allows Eli Lilly early access to Exosome Diagnostics’ proprietary technology for nucleic acid extraction from exosomes.
Exosome Diagnostics (NY, USA) and Eli Lilly (IN, USA) have recently entered a collaboration agreement to expand Lilly’s efforts in biomarker discovery. The agreement allows Lilly early access to technology in nucleic acid extraction from Exosome Diagnostics.
The EX050 nucleic acid kit involved in the agreement allows rapid isolation of exosomes from biological samples (into which these vesicles are secreted by the body’s cells), followed by extraction of both RNA and DNA. The company explains that small volumes of samples, including blood or urine, can be used, which are then analyzed by standard instruments.
Senior medical director at Lilly’s diagnostic and experimental pathology department, Andrew Shade, commented on the agreement, “Exosome Diagnostics technology may provide a unique opportunity to gain insight into the biology of complex conditions such as cancer and immune disorders.” He explained the advantages of Exosome’s proprietary technology, “Exosome technology enables biofluid molecular sampling and the ability to monitor disease progression in real time.”
Chief Executive Officer of Exosome Diagnostics, James McCullough, explained how Lilly hope to apply the technology, “Lilly has accumulated an extensive and well annotated clinical blood sample biobank that provides a unique opportunity to track target biomarkers through the clinical trial process”. He continued, explaining that since Exosome’s technology allows analysis on both fresh and frozen samples, this would “help overcome the limitations of stored biopsy tissue.”
The pharmaceutical company hope that the technology will ultimately aid in biomarker discovery, “Accessing high quality messenger and microRNA directly from frozen patient fluid samples offers a rapid, cost-effective route to identify and validate biomarkers, which may be correlated with drug response and disease recurrence,” explained McCullough.
Source: Exosome diagnostics enters collaboration agreement with Lilly for exosome blood-based biomarker discovery.
