The firm said the funding will support development of its lupus detection tools, and its acquisition of LupusCorner will support development of a lupus management platform.
The partners will conduct an exploratory study to determine how the results of Exagen's lupus test impacts primary care physician practice referral patterns.
The firm's Lab21 division will assume the commercial rights to enzyme immunoassay microtiter plates, and latex agglutination, fluorescence, and rapid lateral flow tests.
In an initial study, they tested an algorithm based on measurements of IgG and IgM antibodies and levels of C1q, to identify the risk of a patient developing lupus.
PredictImmune's test relies on a 16-marker panel run using quantitative PCR to stratify Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis patients according to the severity of their illnesses.
The firm's CEO said that the test must undergo additional clinical studies, but it could be available from a CLIA-certified lab in about a year and a half.
The researchers won a $386,599 NIH grant to evaluate the usefulness of measuring known markers of the disease in saliva and to identify potential new markers.
