NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Johns Hopkins University researchers will use Axela’s dotLab protein-detection technology in a clinical trial to evaluate the prognostic value of certain complexes for acute myocardial infarction, Axela said today.
Under the agreement, scientists at the Johns Hopkins NHLBI Proteomics Center will study Troponin complexes as well as modifications to cardiac Troponin I in patients with AMI. Troponin is a complex of three proteins that is integral to the contraction of cardiac muscle and is released into the blood during cardiac muscle necrosis and cell death.
The assay Johns Hopkins will test can detect Troponin circulating in the blood of AMI patients.
Axela's CEO, Rocky Ganske, said the research could result in “a valuable prognostic tool for the treatment of heart attacks that impact so many lives.”
Axela said Johns Hopkins has granted the company the option to negotiate exclusive rights to intellectual property the trial generates.
Axela's dotLab is an automated sampling system and fluidic controller that presents data in real time using specialized software. Ganske said that the system's ability to measure protein complexes directly in serum in a single test has the potential "to significantly impact heart attack treatment protocols, but could also be applied do many other diseases."