NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) — Prescient Medicine — a provider of toxicology, pharmacogenomic, and other testing services — has partnered with Metabiomics to develop microbiome diagnostic assays for colon cancer and other gastrointestinal diseases, the companies said today.
Under the terms of the deal, the firms will use Metabiomics MultiTag next-generation sequencing technology and microbiome analytics platform to develop a stool-based test for the detection of precancerous colon polyps, as well as diagnostics for other GI conditions including Crohn's disease, colitis, and irritable bowel syndrome.
Additional terms were not disclosed.
"Gastroenterologists have known for a long time that gut microbes are associated with GI disease," Metabiomics COO Greg Kuehn said in a statement. "Now we're finally applying these new metagenomics tools to analyze gut microbial DNA and bringing our understanding of GI disease to a new level."
The companies said the tests are expected to become available in 2020.