Exosome Diagnostics said this week that Cedars-Sinai Medical Center will be an early-access user of the company's exosome RNA biofluid extraction kits for biomarker discovery in neo-natal and other disease settings.
Cedars-Sinai will access the kit through Exosome's "center of excellence" program, which is designed to allow clinical centers already performing research on blood-based biomarkers in exosomes to use Exosome's EXO50 exosome isolation and extraction technology ahead of commercial launch.
Exosome hopes to obtain feedback from the clinical research community on the performance of the EXO50 kit while generating clinically relevant data that can be used immediately in the research setting.
Exosomes and other microvesicles, and their nucleic acid contents, are being investigated for their implications and utility in a broad range of diseases including cancer, central nervous system disorders such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, cardiovascular disease, maternal/fetal medicine, and chronic kidney disease.
Exosome's rapid isolation and extraction technology, under development as EXO50, produces high-quality RNA and DNA, including full length mRNA and microRNA, from patient blood for analysis by standard PCR, array, and sequencing instruments, and personalized medicine applications.
"The ability to monitor patients, particularly extreme premature infants, using real-time biofluid based genetics tests, may provide critical information, which is currently unavailable," Charles Simmons, professor and chair of Cedars-Sinai's Department of Pediatrics, said in a statement. "We have been interested in exosome biology as a tool for diagnostic development, and are pleased to be selected to have access for our neonatal patients to this novel technology for biomarker discovery."
In July, Exosome and Qiagen announced a partnership to develop and commercialize co-branded kits for extraction of RNA from biofluid exosomes starting in 2014 (PCR Insider 7/25/2013). Exosome also recently entered into a collaboration with Eli Lilly for biomarker discovery and validation using the EXO50 kit.
Exosome is also using its technology to develop clinical in vitro diagnostic tests in house and in collaboration with the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.