Research & Development

Liquid biopsy company ANGLE plc has announced a partnership with NuProbe, a genomics and molecular diagnostics company, to utilise the latter’s pan-cancer next-generation sequencing (NGS) panel.

Under the terms of the agreement, ANGLE has been granted an option for an exclusive global licence to the NGS panel outside of China, for the analysis of circulating tumour cells (CTC) and the dual analysis of CTCs and circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA). This NGS panel enables highly sensitive and specific detection of over 6,500 DNA mutations in 61 clinically relevant genes.

For the first stage of the collaboration, NuProbe will transfer manufacture of the NGS panel to a large-scale manufacturing site, and ANGLE will undertake internal validation of the initial batches.

Repeatable, minimally invasive molecular profiling using liquid biopsy analytes has the potential to be used in the future by clinicians for tracking tumour evolution, treatment response, early identification of drug resistance and disease progression.

NuProbe chief executive officer Yingshuang Chai, commented: “We are excited to enter into an agreement with ANGLE plc, a world leader in the harvest of CTCs from blood for analysis. NuProbe’s NGS panel is a low-cost, ultrasensitive pan-cancer NGS panel that can accurately detect mutations and has demonstrated robust performance in both CTC and ctDNA sample types. By combining CTC and ctDNA detection, this collaboration will help drive the development of personalised treatment options for cancer patients. We look forward to the development of a strong partnership with ANGLE in the future.”

ANGLE chief executive officer Andrew Newland, commented: “We are delighted to have signed an agreement with NuProbe, which grants the company an exclusive worldwide licence option (outside of China) to the NGS panel for the analysis of CTCs and dual analysis of CTCs and ctDNA. The company believes that this agreement will enable us to combine the leading CTC harvesting solution with an optimised DNA sequencing panel for analysis of CTCs and dual analysis of CTCs and ctDNA.”

ANGLE plc and NuProbe are biotech companies based in the UK and the US, respectively.