Application
- Graft versus host disease (GVHD) is a deadly alloimmune illness striking 50-70% of bone marrow transplant recipients. There are no accurate biomarkers that allow for identification of disease onset or disease response to treatment.
- Today, bone marrow transplant patients are diagnosed for GVHD based on inexact phenotypic markers and less often by biopsies. These methods yield late-stage diagnosis affecting morbidity and mortality as well as costly, invasive and unspecific treatments.
- GVHD attacks many organs including skin, liver, intestine and lung. The damage to these tissues can be monitored using cfDNA to identify the rate of cell death specific tissues.
Our Innovation
- A revolutionary liquid biopsy technology to detect cell death in specific human tissues using circulating cell-free DNA.
- Our cfDNA diagnostic approach will transform GVHD treatment into a highly accurate and personalized process where patients are monitored by liquid biopsy post-transplant and during treatment to determine disease status and progression.
Advantages
While standard GVHD diagnosis is slow and based on inaccurate signs (rash, diarrhea, bilirubin), cfDNA detection will enable:
- Early diagnosis
- Tissue specificity
- Monitoring of response patient
Opportunity
The cfDNA GVHD technology could be of great interest to a broad spectrum of, such as:
- medical kit and device manufacturers who may license our GVHD technology or apply elements of the technology to their commercial diagnostic applications.
- international distributors that would be interested in marketing the cfDNA GVHD kit to customers throughout Europe, Africa and Asia.
- local drug manufacturers that may be interested in using the technology as a companion diagnostic tool to determine if their particular treatment is effective for GVHD or a specific organ response in GVHD.
