NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Aelan Cell Technologies announced today that it has acquired a worldwide license to a US patent from the Buck Institute for Research on Aging related to an undisclosed epigenetic biomarker for Alzheimer's disease.
According to the company, the patent is based on work conducted by Aelan Founder, President, and CEO Victoria Lunyak while she was a researcher at the Buck Institute, and covers a biomarker associated with DNA damage, cellular senescence, and aging.
Aelan previously said that it had used the biomarker to develop different configurations for a serum-based Alzheimer's disease diagnostic. With the license, the company said it now has development and commercialization rights to the biomarker, and plans to begin new clinical trials to evaluate the tests.
Financial terms of the licensing deal were not disclosed.
"Together with other proprietary components developed by Aelan, the licensed biomarker is used in one of our novel and proprietary serological ELISA diagnostic tests intended for confirmatory diagnostics and potentially screening for early onset Alzheimer's disease in the elderly population," Lunyak said in a statement.