NEW YORK ─ The University of Liverpool said on Monday that it has signed a two-year option agreement with Australian diagnostics company Bard1 Life Sciences to evaluate a type 3c diabetes blood test.
Under the agreement, the university and diagnostics company will evaluate two novel protein biomarkers that, in preliminary testing, have accurately distinguished T3cDM from type 2 diabetes, or T2DM, in individuals who are newly diagnosed with diabetes, the university said.
The combination of adiponectin and interleukin-1 receptor antagonist showed a high diagnostic potential for distinguishing T3cDM from T2DM, with an optimal sensitivity of 83.7 percent and specificity of 90.0 percent, the University of Liverpool said.
The agreement also provides Notting Hill, Australia-based Bard1 with the option to license the intellectual property for the development and commercialization of a type 3c test. Bard1 is investigating two approaches for screening pancreatic cancer with the aim of introducing a screening test. The firm will pay a nonmaterial upfront option fee and support patent costs incurred by the university.
"There is currently widespread interest in finding ways to detect pancreatic cancer in individuals over 50 years who are newly diagnosed with diabetes," said Eithne Costello, a professor of molecular oncology who heads up the diagnostic testing project at the University of Liverpool and is the lead researcher on the UK-Early Detection Initiative, or UK-EDI, which is collecting samples to allow validation of the T3cDM markers in larger sample sizes. "The UK-EDI study will collect pre-diagnostic samples and data from individuals who will subsequently receive a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer."