– The first circulating tumour cell (“CTC”) processing facility in China
– Facility leverages on Clearbridge Biomedics’ ClearCell® FX1 System,which provides label-free, non-invasive, real-time ‘liquid biopsy’
– Cancer cells retrieved from blood are intact and viable, opening up the potential for cell-based work and animal work as well as molecular analysis.
Shanghai LIDE Biotech Co., LTD (LIDE), a China registered company that focuses on translational medicine services and
Singapore-based Clearbridge Biomedics have established a new exclusive partnership for the Contracted Research Organisation (CRO) market in China. The two partners will jointly set up the LIDE-Clearbridge CRO CTC Hub to provide circulating tumour cell (CTC) processing services. This facility will be part of LIDE’s existing18,298 sqft facility in Shanghai, and is already up and running. This is China’s first CTC processing facility.
The LIDE-Clearbridge CRO CTC Hub will target biotech and pharmaceutical companies, as well as hospitals, helping to accelerate their therapeutic and drug discovery research. In addition to CTC processing services, the facility provides complementary downstream analysis services, including cell enumeration,immuno histochemistry testing, fluorescence in situ hybridisation, cell culture, patientderived tumour xenograft (PDX) for drug sensitivity testing and genomic profiling using
next generation sequencing.
The Hub leverages upon the ClearCell® FX1 system, the award-winning, label-free, automated CTC isolation system. Developed by Clearbridge Biomedics, the ClearCell® FX is able to isolate intact and viable CTCs from a patient’s blood sample.
CTCs are cells that have detached from the primary tumour and circulate in the patient’s bloodstream. They are extremely rare – a millilitre of blood contains a few CTCs mixed with billions of blood cells. CTCs play a significant role in metastasis of the cancer, as the ‘seeds’ for the spread and growth of new tumours.
“Most patients do not die from their primary tumour, but when the disease spreads to another organ. By better understanding how CTCs lead to the metastatic spread of this disease, we will be able to develop better ways to diagnose, treat and manage
cancer,” said Johnson Chen, Managing Director and Founder Clearbridge Biomedics.“This partnership between Clearbridge Biomedics and LIDE comes at an opportune time, as it allows us to reach out to the growing drug development market in China.
Through this new partnership, we are able to support the pharmaceutical industry,which has already demonstrated significant interest using to CTC technology to empower the development of new therapeutic solutions in the fight against cancer.”
“Clearbridge BioMedics’ unique CTC enrichment technology will enable us to provide new real-time insights to our pharma partners and customers,” said Dr. Wen Danyi,CEO of LIDE Biotech. “Combined with our powerful PDX capabilities and leading
downstream analysis, we can now enable comprehensive studies into metastasis biology and cancer pathogenesis; that can contribute to personalized precision medicine and timely, tailored, treatments for cancer patients.”
In this partnership, Clearbridge Biomedics will be bringing technology and know-how as a leading “liquid biopsy” technology company in Asia. This will complement LIDE’s world-class capabilities in patient-derived xenografts, pre-clinical testing and
development services. The LIDE-Clearbridge CRO CTC Hub’s integrated service solution will be a “one-stop-shop” for oncology research, therapeutic target development and biomarker validation for the cancer researcher, biotechs and pharmaceutical companies.
About Clearbridge BioMedics
Clearbridge BioMedics is an oncology research and diagnostics company that enables real-time liquid biopsy using a label-free CTC enrichment platform. It is a Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) / National University of Singapore (NUS) spinoff company that is committed to developing medical devices, which will impact the world and revolutionize cancer diagnostics and patient care, by leveraging on ground-breaking technology from research partners.
