Technology

Advances in genomic and proteomic science over the past decade have led to the development of targeted diagnostics and therapeutics that leverage the knowledge of an individual’s genetic make-up to create a more personalized approach to their treatment. Genomic testing enables us to identify an individual’s susceptibility to disease, predict how a patient will respond to a given drug and match them with the most effective therapy. The science underpinning personalized medicine has the potential to eliminate unnecessary treatments and expenditures, reduce the incidence of adverse reactions to drugs, increase the efficacy of prescribed therapies and ultimately, improve health outcomes.

One of the key biotechnological processes necessary to deliver on the promise of personalized medicine is the capability to isolate particular molecules, viruses, bacteria and mammalian cells from a large background of complex fluids. To be economically viable outside the research lab this has to be accomplished at very high rates of throughput, purity and recovery. Cynvenio’s proprietary bioseparation technology meets these requirements and has broad applicability in the life sciences – from molecular diagnostics to transplant therapies.

Cynvenio has developed a highly sensitive platform and the associated chemistry to reliably isolate Circulating Tumor Cells from whole blood. The Cynvenio platform delivers high CTC recovery rates directly from whole blood, efficient CTC enumeration, and yields viable CTCs that can be taken off-platform for downstream molecular processing including PCR and deep sequencing.

Cynvenio’s CTC platform is the result of the company’s core competency in sample prep, microfluidics and assay development. The results to date have generated the hope of a real paradigm shift in cancer diagnostics, prognostics and mechanistic studies.

Oncology / Molecular Diagnostics Program

Over 1.5 million people are diagnosed with cancer annually in the U.S. and nearly 570,000 die as a result of the disease, according to estimates from the American Cancer Society. The National Institutes of Health estimates overall costs of cancer in 2010 at $263.8 billion of which $102.8 billion is for direct medical costs. This is due, in part, to the fact that cancer is a highly individualized disease and today’s treatments are mostly “one-size-fits-all”. Since every tumor has distinct characteristics, targeted therapeutic drug treatment is the preferred approach. Unfortunately there is currently no standard procedure for selecting the optimal chemotherapy regimen.

Improvement of treatment outcomes for patients with solid tissue tumors depends on the drug’s ability to target the genetic mutations responsible for tumor growth. Currently, mutational analysis requires painful tissue biopsy which is invasive, expensive, and clinically impractical to perform at scale. Alternatively, extracting Circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs) – extremely rare cancer cells released into the bloodstream by the primary tumor – for molecular analysis offers an attractive strategy for genotyping patient-specific tumors and mutations.

Cynvenio has a number of collaborations underway with clinicians, oncologists and diagnostic/therapeutic industry partners. If you would like to collaborate with Cynvenio, please click here.