NEW YORK – Machine learning diagnostic firm Prevencio announced Tuesday it is collaborating with Seattle Children's Research Institute to develop a blood test for Kawasaki disease.
The institute will provide Prevencio with blood samples and the firm will use its HART AI platform to develop a blood test for the disease. Under the agreement, Prevencio will retain exclusive global rights to the test. The firm will use its laboratory partner Myriad RBM to measure proteins in the blood samples.
Additional terms of the deal were not disclosed.
According to Michael Portman, director of pediatric cardiovascular research at Seattle Children's, it appears Kawasaki disease, which occurs mostly in children younger than 5 years old, can be triggered by COVID-19 and has similar presenting symptoms to the virus. He added there is no diagnostic test for the disease. and "without early treatment, there is a 25 to 30 percent risk of heart artery lesions which can lead to ballooning … of the heart vessels."
Earlier this year, Kirkland, Washington-based Prevencio partnered with Microsoft Healthcare to sell its HART cardiac blood tests into Microsoft's existing customer base.