NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Quest Diagnostics has teamed up with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Weill Cornell Medical College to launch a molecular blood test for identifying renal organ transplant rejection.
Quest has also formed R&D collaboration deals with Beth Israel Deaconess and Weill Cornell in the area of renal transplantation, it said.
The test, which was launched on Thursday, is based on the RNA markers forkhead box P3, granzyme B, and perforin licensed exclusively to Quest from the hospital and the medical college, and other markers. According to Quest, the test is the industry's first molecular test for helping doctors detect kidney failure weeks before conventional tests or clinical symptoms appear that indicate damage.
"Molecular diagnostics to noninvasively detect and predict renal transplant rejection and monitor the efficacy and safety of pharmaceutical drug therapy and treatment withdrawal have the potential to significantly improve treatment and outcomes for renal transplant patients," Terry Strom, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, and co-director of The Transplant Institute at Beth Israel Deaconess, said in a statement. "The first molecular test for this purpose has opened the window to new opportunities for personalized and more effective management of renal graft patients."