A new study from Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Poland’s Medical University of Lodz suggests a simple blood test could detect ovarian and breast cancer without the need for genetic sequencing, paving the way for broader and less costly screening campaigns. Building on prior research that looked at the use of serial microRNAs to detect ovarian cancer at much higher accuracy rates than current tests like CA125, the researchers examined the role of circulating microRNAs to detect ovarian cancer in a higher-risk population – women who carry the BRCA 1 and BRCA 2 genes.
Mettactics raising funds to empower precision medicine
As it develops a new metastasis-on-a-chip device based on microfluidic chip technology that provides a platform to capture and study highly metastatic cancer cells, Mettactics Ltd. is in the process of raising financing to develop its product to empower precision medicine. Founded in 2019, Hong Kong-based Mettactics developed a microfluidic device that can capture metastatic cells and carry out clinical tests to predict the drug response of patients based on the cells’ genetic signature.
Ziwig’s rapid saliva test validated in scientific study
Ziwig SAS published scientific validation for its saliva test to diagnose endometriosis. The article published in the New England Journal of Medicine, confirms the validity of the Ziwig Endotest. The saliva test has been the subject of a study involving 200 symptomatic patients monitored in five hospital units and specialized centers in France since November 2021. The findings show, in terms of performance and reproducibility, a sensitivity and specificity of more than 95%. “Today, this is the only indisputably effective noninvasive diagnostic tool offering an alternative to surgery,” Horace Roman, gynecological surgeon and founder of the Franco-European Multidisciplinary Endometriosis Institute in Bordeaux told BioWorld.
New graphene manufacturing process may reduce cost, increase accuracy of biosensors
A method for manufacturing graphene which significantly increases its electrochemically active surface area holds the potential to reduce the cost and increase the accuracy of biosensors and could provide the basis for amplification-free, label-free and enzyme-free in vitro diagnostics. As the world’s thinnest, strongest and most conductive material, biomedical applications of graphene electrodes ranging from wound-monitoring dressings to brain implants are in development.
FDA unveils pilot for oncology lab-developed tests as rulemaking nears
The U.S. FDA reported a pilot program for validation of lab-developed tests (LDTs) used as companion diagnostics (CDx), a move that seems an implicit recognition that test kits as CDx products are not the darlings of test developers. The program arrives as the agency is considering rulemaking for regulation of LDTs, however, a combination of developments that promises to roil the already strained relationship between the FDA and clinical labs.
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