NEW YORK – Biomarker discovery firm ProteinLogic and South African institution Stellenbosch University on Monday said they will use a $1.35 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to aid development of ProteinLogic's immunoassay technology for use in monitoring treatment response to tuberculosis antimicrobial chemotherapy.
Cambridge, UK-based ProteinLogic is developing its ImmiPrint testing technology for the detection of disease-specific soluble immune system protein signatures in blood and other fluids with predictive models that are developed through machine learning. Stellenbosch researchers have been leading clinical trials on TB diagnostic biomarkers as part of multicenter studies including the African-European Tuberculosis Consortium, ScreenTB, and TriageTB.
They plan to use the non-dilutive funding from the Gates Foundation to determine whether ImmiPrint tests can be used to monitor TB patients' responses to antimicrobial therapy.
The partners said that TB is one of the world's deadliest diseases and infections with drug-resistant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis becoming more common. That emergence of drug-resistant strains has increased the urgency of developing new treatments and prevention methods yet existing treatments require six-month regimens and costly diagnostic testing.
"ProteinLogic's ImmiPrint technology provides the basis of a universal protein-based search engine for the rapid, efficient, and cost-effective discovery of diagnostic biomarker signatures that address multiple disease categories," ProteinLogic Chairman Peter Klimt said in a statement. He added that the company is focused on the development of high-impact affordable diagnostic testing and disease monitoring systems.