NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – BGI and Clearbridge BioMedics said today that they have signed a partnership agreement, under which they will solely distribute and market Clearbridge's ClearCell FX1 solution and related liquid biopsy products in China.
BGI said that it also hopes to use its genomics expertise and capabilities to extend Clearbridge's ClearCell FX1 circulating tumor cell system into new clinical research applications, as well as develop specific clinical products using the platform.
ClearCell FX1 is an automated label-free circulating tumor cell enrichment platform, based on an inertial focusing microfluidics technology that isolates intact, viable CTCs from patients' blood.
The partners said they plan to collaborate to drive clinical adoption by working with key opinion leaders in leading hospitals. Possible applications for their work with the FX1 system include cancer-related targeted gene analysis, drug-related gene analysis, single-cell analysis, and cancer immunotherapy.
"This collaboration supports our efforts to bring our ClearCell FX1 system into the China research and clinical markets," Johnson Chen, chairman and founder of Clearbridge BioMedics said in a statement.
"We're very confident that the combination of [Clearbridge's] rare cell enrichment technology with BGI’s genomic and trans-omics technology, and our strong collaboration networks … will result in better cancer management," added Xun Xu, BGI's executive vice president and director of research.