SUZHOU, China, June 4, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- MicroDiag Biomedicine, a leading molecular diagnostic technology inventor based in Suzhou, China, was invited to present a major breakthrough technology developed by the MicroDiag team, a serum circulating DNA mutation detection assay, at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO).
"We are very proud to be the first Chinese company invited to present research progress at the ASCO annual meeting," said Tao Wang, MD, Founder and Chair of Board of the company. "To detect somatic mutations in the blood remained a challenge for years. We developed a novel assay whose performance is the best ever reported. The technology is expected to change personalized cancer prevention and therapy significantly."
Personalized cancer therapy enables oncologists to choose the most suitable medicine for cancer patients; it is realized through genetic testing which detects genetic mutations and predicts the efficacy and side effects of anticancer drugs. Tumor tissue samples are required for these tests. However, tumor samples are not available for over 50 percent of advanced or metastatic cancer patients. An alternative method is to detect genetic mutations in the blood. Clinical application of blood mutation detection is limited due to poor sensitivity and specificity of currently available technologies.
The technology developed by MicroDiag, named MCA-qASA assay, integrates three major mutation detection techniques - ARMS, HRM and DNA blocker. "Combination of these three techniques produced a surprise, or miracle. We are able to detect as low as 0.01 percent mutated DNA in the blood with high specificity," said Dr. Zongfei Li, leader of the project. Through a preclinical study, the sensitivity and specificity were reported as 80.5 percent and 94.7 percent respectively, the highest ever. The MicroDiag team has initiated collaborations with leading Chinese hospitals for clinical trials. The technology is expected to be commercialized in China in early 2015.
About MicroDiag Biomedicine
MicroDiag Biomedicine, founded in 2008, is a prominent inventor of new technologies for cancer screening and diagnostics. After over five-year growth, the annual income exceeds 20 million CNY (about 3.2 million USD). The company employs over 100 including a R&D team of about 40 scientists. The products of MicroDiag are covers screening, diagnosis, companion diagnosis of cancer and monitoring of cancer metastasis/recurrence. As a research orientated company, MicroDiag holds over 20 Chinese or international patents.
