BARD1 Life Sciences Limited (ASX:BD1) has entered into an assay development agreement with Thermo Fisher Scientific for custom research assay development of a multiplex autoantibody test system.
The scope of work includes the transfer of the current BARD1 assay design to Thermo Fisher for optimisation of an autoantibody assay using Thermo Fisher’a ProcartaPlex® Technology for BARD1’s research use.
The first application of the ProcartaPlex® Technology is to the BARD1-Ovarian test that BARD1 plans to develop for detection of ovarian cancer.
The custom research assay development project will commence this month and is expected to take about nine months.
Evaluating the accuracy of the BARD1-Ovarian test
If the development project is successful, BARD1 and Thermo Fisher will then discuss the potential for Thermo Fisher to supply research autoantibody kits to BARD1 for its use in research studies.
BARD1 chief executive officer Dr Leearne Hinch said: “We are pleased to work with such an experienced partner.
“The development of a RUO BARD1 autoantibody assay for use on Luminex® instrumentation will be an important milestone for the company, enabling us to initiate clinical testing to evaluate the accuracy of the new multiplex BARD1-Ovarian test for early detection of ovarian cancer in early 2019.”
READ: BARD1 Life Sciences secures Israeli patent for unique lung cancer test
BARD1 was recently issued a patent in Israel for detecting BARD1 isoforms (proteins) in lung and colorectal cancer.
The company’s proprietary technology platform, BARD1, is based on novel tumour markers with potential diagnostic and therapeutic applications across multiple cancers.
BARD1’s patent portfolio comprises five patent families with multiple granted and pending patents across key markets including the US, Europe and Japan.