NuProbe Announces Strategic Collaboration with QIAGEN, Completes Multiple CE IVD Product Registrations
HOUSTON, March 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — NuProbe Global, a global molecular diagnostics company based in Shanghai and Suzhou, China and Houston, TX, today announced it has entered into a collaboration agreement with QIAGEN to develop next-generation sequencing (NGS)-based cancer diagnostic tests for non-invasive liquid biopsy. Under terms of the collaboration agreement, NuProbe and QIAGEN will explore integrating their two amplicon-based enrichment and sequencing technologies: NuProbe’s proprietary Blocker Displacement Amplification (BDA) technology and QIAGEN’s Single Primer Extension (SPE) technology, for accurate and affordable analysis of DNA mutations with very low variant allele fractions and to advance non-invasive cancer genomic profiling.
Meanwhile, NuProbe has also recently completed five CE IVD registrations for molecular diagnostic products, including for common mutations related to non-small-cell lung cancer (EGFR mutations) and for melanoma and thyroid cancer (BRAF mutations).
Liquid biopsy is gaining emerging popularity for non-invasive profiling of cancer mutations to inform optimal target therapy selection and provide timely early warning of cancer recurrence. The NGS liquid biopsy oncology panels that the two companies are investigating will achieve adequate limit of detection in a cost-effective manner that other current technologies cannot equal on liquid biopsies.
“BDA technology is one of our core technologies and have been demonstrated robustness across multiple platforms including NGS,” said David Y. Zhang, co-founder of and head of innovation at NuProbe, and associate professor of bioengineering at Rice University. “We are enthusiastic to further expand its application to QIAGEN’s recognized SPE platform.”
The QIAGEN and NuProbe teams will initially work on developing research use only products, for clinical researchers in oncology. The two companies may explore further strategic collaboration and develop other commercial products in the future.
“We are excited about the potential products that will come out of the two synergistic rare variant enrichment and detection methods,” said Yingshuang Chai, CEO and Chairman of NuProbe. “This collaboration further demonstrates the adoption of our cutting-edge technology by industry leaders, and our high valuable products will help more eligible patients benefit from therapy selection and recurrence monitoring with non-invasive detection.”
Separately from the QIAGEN collaboration, NuProbe announces that it has recently completed five CE IVD registrations for molecular diagnostic products, including liquid biopsy mutation detection kits for the EGFR and BRAF genes. NuProbe is planning CE IVD and NMPA (China’s equivalent of FDA) registrations for additional products including the recently released VarTrace™ AML Multi-gene Panel.
About NuProbe Global
NuProbe is a cutting-edge genomics company formed through the merger of NuProbe and Carrier Gene. It is developing sequencing-based tests for cancer and infertility. NuProbe has sites in Shanghai and Suzhou, China and Houston, USA. NuProbe collaborates with renowned medical institutions including MD Anderson and Baylor College of Medicine. NuProbe’s revolutionary molecular diagnostics technologies greatly increase the sensitivity and affordability of qPCR, Sanger, and NGS, enabling broader adoption of personalized medicine. https://nuprobe.com
