Single Cell Genome Sequencing Company BioSkryb and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital Partner to Develop Clinical Diagnostic Solutions to Identify Resistant Cancer Cells as Patients Undergo Treatment
DURHAM, N.C., June 22, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- BioSkryb, a developer of genomic amplification technologies that deliver higher coverage and fidelity for gene sequencing, today announced that it has entered into an exclusive worldwide licensing agreement with St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, the nation's leading hospital dedicated to understanding, treating and curing childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases. BioSkryb will use St. Jude technology to develop a first-in-class clinical diagnostic solution to detect and define heterogeneous populations of cancer cells as patients undergo treatment.
BioSkryb and St. Jude previously established an exclusive licensing agreement for the research-based applications of the primary template-directed amplification technology (PTA).
"With this expanded licensing agreement, we hope to use this technology developed by scientists at St. Jude to generate diagnostic solutions that provide real insights to improve cancer treatments," said Jay West, PhD, CEO and Co-founder of BioSkryb.
With the expansion of the license, BioSkryb will initiate the process of developing diagnostic solutions that take advantage of the proprietary single cell-genomic amplification approach.
The company and their early access customers have demonstrated the superior performance of PTA compared to existing genome amplification technologies. These advancements are driving the early demand for the developed suite of research-use-only products, marketed as the ResolveDNA™ product line (formerly SkrybAmp). Basic and clinical research groups have been looking for a solution that provides the improved accuracy in genome sequencing that the ResolveDNA amplification system offers using low inputs of DNA and single cells.
"I am confident that the significantly improved accuracy of single-cell genome sequencing enabled by PTA will lead to a new generation of clinical diagnostics, providing much more detailed information on the genomic changes in a tumor than what is currently available with standard sequencing approaches," said Charles Gawad MD, PhD, Associate Professor at Stanford University, BioSkryb Co-founder and the inventor of the PTA technology while at St. Jude. "The ultimate goal of the cancer clinical diagnostic is to connect genetic variation in those single cancer cells to a phenotype, such as resistance to a specific drug—with the aim of translating that into an actionable diagnostic test that will guide higher resolution precision oncology and improved outcomes for our patients."
BioSkryb will initially focus on hematologic cancers, followed by the development of similar solutions for solid tumors.