Molecular Stethoscope Announces Publication of its NAFLD/NASH Study in the American Journal of Physiology - Gastrointestinal and Liver Physiology

Circulating cell-free mRNA in blood reflective of NAFLD/NASH liver pathology

PALO ALTO, Calif., Feb. 23, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Molecular Stethoscope, Inc., a precision medicine biotechnology company, announces publication of its human proof-of-concept study describing the stratification of NAFLD/NASH patients with clinically relevant and advanced liver fibrosis using the company's Next-Generation cell-free mRNA Liquid Biopsy Technology Platform. The study titled "Non-invasive Stratification of Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease by Whole-transcriptome Cell-free mRNA Characterization" was published in the American Journal of Physiology - Gastrointestinal and Liver Physiology, a journal of the American Physiological Society. The first author is Naga Chalasani, M.D., Professor of Gastroenterology and Hepatology and Interim Chair in the Department of Medicine at Indiana University in the USA. Dr. Chalasani is the leading author of the AASLD Practice Guidelines for the diagnosis and management of NAFLD/NASH disease. "Once validated in larger studies, non-invasive Liquid Biopsy diagnostic solutions such as the ones being developed by Molecular Stethoscope may be used serially not only as Drug Development Tools to monitor the ongoing challenging pharmacotherapy clinical trials, but also to follow cf-mRNA changes during lifestyle modification which has led to marked improvements in steatosis and fibrosis," commented Dr. Chalasani.

There continues to be a concerted effort to accelerate the translation of innovative technologies to clinical studies and patient management. Consistent with this, the diligent efforts by the USA National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), biotechnology consortia and the USA-FDA have made foundational strides in establishing best practice Next Generation Sequencing, RNA-Seq and Machine Learning that will accelerate the translation of the Molecular Stethoscope Technology Platform into products for clinical practice.

The substantial unmet clinical need in NAFLD/NASH has spurred a $1.4B investment by numerous Pharma/Biotech companies with 125 interventional clinical trials now recruiting subjects. In addition, the USA-FDA has encouraged the development of Drug Development Tools to monitor efficacy of pharmacotherapies that target multiple mechanisms of action. "Clinical interventional studies for NAFLD/NASH have multiple challenges. The Liver Forum, a collaborative non-competitive group of stakeholders from academia, regulatory agencies, professional societies, patient organizations, and industry stakeholders, has recommended standard reporting of baseline parameters and standardization of diet and exercise information to facilitate cross-trial analysis, an important step in validation of Non-Invasive Tests for this serious common chronic liver disease," added Veronica Miller, Ph.D., the founder and Director of the Forum for Collaborative Research and a Professor (Adjunct) at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health.

"The publication of this important study positions us to move forward with the next phase of product development to have a significant impact on NAFLD/NASH clinical practice and in Pharma/Biotech R&D to improve the health of patients," commented Guillermo Elias, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer at Molecular Stethoscope.

The study is available at the American Journal of Physiology - Gastrointestinal and Liver Physiology website.

https://journals.physiology.org/doi/abs/10.1152/ajpgi.00397.2020

"We would like to thank the contributions of our medical and scientific collaborators and NAFLD/NASH patients for participating in this study," acknowledged Dr. Elias, CEO of Molecular Stethoscope.

About Molecular Stethoscope
Molecular Stethoscope is a precision medicine company based in Silicon Valley, California, focused on discovering, developing and commercializing non-invasive and dynamic products for the early detection, diagnosis and treatment-response monitoring of chronic diseases starting with the liver (NAFLD/NASH) and the central nervous system (Alzheimer's Disease and Multiple Sclerosis). Molecular Stethoscope was co-founded by Dr. Stephen Quake, Professor of Bioengineering at Stanford University, and co-President of the Chan Zuckerberg BioHub, and Dr. Eric Topol, Director and Founder, Scripps Research Translational Institute; Chair of Innovative Medicine, Scripps. The Company's proprietary and novel Next-Generation cf-mRNA Liquid Biopsy-Artificial Intelligence Technology Platform integrates cell-free mRNA (cf-mRNA) with RNA-Seq, clinical information, and purpose-built bioinformatics and machine learning and artificial intelligence to generate clinically actionable, dynamic information to fundamentally change how healthcare is delivered at scale.

Forward Looking Statement
This press release contains forward-looking statements including, but not limited to statements about the Company's expectations regarding its proprietary Technology Platform. Forward looking statements are subject to uncertainties that could cause actual performance or results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements.

Additional information and inquiries

Investor Relations: investorrelations@molecularstethoscope.com

Public and Media Relations: publicrelations@molecularstethoscope.com

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