LARIAT BIOSCIENCES, INC. — Department of Health and Human Services SBIR Phase I: NCI

Description

ABSTRACT Circulating cell free DNA in the bloodstream holds the promise of non invasiveliquid biopsiesfor cancer diagnosticsMutations that drive the growth and spread of tumors are present and detectable within this genetic pool despite being outnumbered by vast amounts of wild type DNAHoweverthere are no single genetic biomarkers of cancer and so to be of practical use many possible mutations must be screened simultaneouslyCurrent techniques lose the high sensitivity required for this needle in a haystack search once multiple mutations are targetedLariat Biosciences is developing new technologies that break this trade off between sensitivity and breadthproviding for the first time the complete tools necessary to mine the bloodstream for clinically actionable signs of cancerThe Lariat technology pairs the exquisite sensitivity of emulsion digital PCRcapable of mutant quantitation at mutant to wild type ratios oftowith the ability to isolate and deeply characterize the detected mutant DNA afterwardsWith orthogonal methods of DNA identificationthe false positives that undermine the multiplexed sensitivity of current techniques are eliminatedLariat s initial product offering will be a comprehensive genetic screen for the common actionable mutations in pre treatment non small cell lung cancer that will be useful for screening at risk populations and for predicting initial patient response to tyrosine kinase inhibitor drugs NARRATIVE Circulating cell free DNA in the bloodstream holds the promise of noninvasiveliquid biopsiesfor cancer diagnosticsMutations that drive the growth and spread of tumors are present and detectable within this genetic pool despite being outnumbered by vast amounts of healthy wildtype DNALariat Biosciences is developing new technologies that provide for the first time the complete tools necessary to mine the bloodstream for clinically actionable signs of cancer