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Seegene launched a large-scale initiative aimed at gathering clinical evidence to support a transition from virus-centered testing toward syndromic PCR for respiratory infections.
The Global Million Clinical Study will generate large-scale clinical evidence on comprehensive PCR testing across diverse healthcare settings worldwide, Seegene said. The company wants to use its findings to verify clinical usefulness of comprehensive, symptom-based syndromic testing, with a goal of establishing new global standards for respiratory infection diagnostics.
The initiative follows a study of Seegene’s STAgora platform, which found that respiratory infections often involve multiple pathogens. After analyzing approximately 260,000 respiratory PCR test results from children from birth to age 5 over a 42-month period, company researchers found that the respiratory viral panel testing yielded a positivity rate of 87%. Of the positive cases, 78% carried pneumonia-causing bacterial pathogens. Similarly, pneumonia-causing bacterial panel testing showed a positivity rate of 76%, with 88% of positive cases also testing positive for viral pathogens.
Pediatric respiratory infections sometimes progress to serious conditions such as pneumonia or sepsis. Having comprehensive pathogen information early in the clinical evaluation process supports appropriate diagnostic and treatment decisions, Seegene said.
Neurodegenerative disease-focused collaboration involves extracellular vesicle-enabled immunoassays
NanoSomiX recently announced plans to collaborate with Beckman Coulter Diagnostics on development of next generation immunoassays for neurodegenerative diseases.
The companies share an interest in addressing long-standing challenges in detecting low abundance, brain specific biomarkers in blood, NanoSomiX said. Its proprietary platform focuses on extracellular vesicles (EVs) derived from defined brain cell populations, including neurons and glial cells.
EVs — particularly brain derived EVs — offer a noninvasive way to access meaningful signals from the brain using a small volume of blood, NanoSomiX officials said. The companies’ EV-based immunoassays measure biomarkers from neuron and other brain cell-derived EVs, supporting research into disease mechanisms, progression, and therapeutic response. Working with Beckman Coulter Diagnostics will help translations of this scientific foundation toward scalable, automated immunoassay solutions for both research and clinical settings, the officials added.
NanoSomiX has developed and published unique EV based immunoassay platforms applicable to a wide spectrum of neurodegenerative diseases and neuro injury. The platform is compatible with high-throughput testing systems, positioning it as a strong foundation for translational research and scalable immunoassay development.
Partnership focuses on asthma and COPD diagnostics
bioAffinity Technologies recently announced a collaboration with Pictor to develop and commercialize bioAffinity Technologies next-generation diagnostic tests that provide a more complete picture of lung inflammation in patients with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
The collaboration will integrate bioAffinity’s expertise in flow cytometry with Pictor’s targeted proteomic analysis platform to analyze immune cell populations and cytokine profiles associated with airway inflammation, the companies said.
The partners anticipate that this will result in a high-throughput laboratory test that bioAffinity Technologies will offer to help physicians identify the inflammatory pathways driving an individual patient’s disease. Such a test will support more informed decisions when considering advanced therapies, including Food and Drug Administration-approved biologics and emerging targeted treatments, bioAffinity Technologies said.
Acquisition of clinical metagenomics platform aimed at better infection diagnosis
The German corporation Bruker recently announced the acquisition of the DISQVER clinical metagenomics platform from Noscendo.
The DISQVER platform provides advanced bioinformatics and reporting to support rapid and comprehensive whole genome sequencing directly from cell-free DNA in human blood samples. It also enables metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) analysis of microbes directly from blood samples, further expanding Bruker’s NGS-based infection detection capabilities.
The mNGS analysis can be done directly from cell-free DNA samples from blood in fewer than 24 hours after sample receipt. This advanced mNGS clinical research approach can be valuable for bloodstream infections, sepsis, endocarditis, and other severe infectious diseases, Bruker said.
Following the acquisition, DISQVER remains available for research use only while Bruker progresses its registration for diagnostic purposes.
The acquisition adds more NGS applications to Bruker’s metagenomics portfolio and enhances the support that the company provides for earlier decision-making in sepsis, bloodstream infections, and severe infections, company officials said.
Partnership to expand NGS-based homologous recombination deficiency
Burning Rock Biotech Limited and Myriad Genetics recently entered a global technology licensing agreement and partnership to speed development and commercialization of new homologous recombination deficiency (HRD) testing solutions.
Through the collaboration, Burning Rock will expand the clinical capabilities of its myChoice HRD plus test by adding the prostate Genomic Instability Score (prGIS) algorithm. Currently, the company has commercialized this test in China.
Presently, the prGIS algorithm evaluates multiple genomic scar features, including telomeric allelic imbalance, large-scale state transition, and genome-wide imbalance, to evaluate HRD status in prostate cancer patients.
Burning Rock also will leverage Myriad’s algorithms for GIS, licensed globally except in Japan, and prGIS, licensed globally except in Japan and the United States. Burning Rock will combine these algorithms with its expertise in assay development and commercialization to develop a new generation of HRD testing kits on its proprietary OncoScreen Plus platform, the company said.
Tempus to acquire Personalis to advance cancer monitoring
Tempus AI has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Personalis, Tempus announced recently.
The acquisition will expand Tempus’ capabilities in minimal residual disease (MRD) and support of patients from diagnosis and treatment selection to recurrence and monitoring.
The acquisition builds on the companies’ previously existing partnership, which involved Tempus’ investment in Personalis and commercialization of the company’s NeXT Personal MRD test. The new deal combines Tempus’ multimodal data platform, artificial intelligence capabilities, and precision oncology portfolio with Personalis’ tumor-informed MRD technology to expand access to longitudinal monitoring and create new opportunities to advance biomarker discovery.