NEW YORK – Dutch molecular diagnostics firm GenDx said Monday that it has obtained a worldwide license from the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) for a patented method to detect donor-specific cell-free DNA in pediatric patients that have undergone a heart transplant.
Researchers at MCW developed the method as an alternative to endomyocardial biopsies and their associated costs and risks. The blood test employs multiplex qPCR to assess the fraction of donor cfDNA. Although developed for pediatric patients, GenDx said it could also potentially be applied in other organs and transplant settings.
"Combining the MCW technology with its own … offers an enormous potential to develop products which can predict early the potential rejection of transplanted organs. We are excited to collaborate with MCW enabling new options for accurate transplant monitoring," GenDx CEO Wietse Mulder said in a statement.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.