NEW YORK – Qiagen announced on Friday that it has entered into an agreement with German life sciences startup Actome to develop protein analysis applications for the QIAcuity digital PCR system.
As part of the agreement, Qiagen has made an undisclosed investment in Actome.
The QIAcuity platform uses nanoplates to process samples in two hours using digital PCR. In a statement, Qiagen said the collaboration with Actome will extend QIAcuity's reach beyond genomics into proteomics, enabling the quantification of proteins and the analysis of interactions between proteins and between proteins and target genes.
"The partnership with Actome extends for the first time the use of [digital PCR] to protein quantification and protein-protein interaction," said Thomas Schweins, senior VP and head of the life science business area at Qiagen.
The partnership with Actome includes a comarketing agreement and provides Qiagen with a co-exclusive license for digital PCR applications to use Actome's patented protein-interaction-coupling (PICO)-technology on QIAcuity. The PICO-Technology translates complex protein status into DNA barcodes that can be amplified and detected on QIAcuity, according to Qiagen.
The companies will now jointly develop assays for protein quantification, which will complement genomic analysis and help establish a fuller picture of a disease, Qiagen also said.