Seek to resolve NIPT limitations, expand range of diagnosable abnormalities.
Online, November 4, 2015 (Newswire.com) - CARLSBAD, Calif. & SARCELLES, France--Applied Spectral Imaging and ScreenCell announced today that they have entered into a global partnership to develop a procedure enabling genetic analysis of trophoblastic fetal cells for prenatal diagnoses of genetic diseases. The partnering leverages ASI's most advanced automated imaging platforms supporting FISH, brightfield and unique spectral image acquisition and analysis for karyotyping and FISH, and ScreenCell's proprietary method for isolating circulating fetal cells.
"Adding ScreenCell's method for non-invasive prenatal testing to our extensive imaging offering will allow us to offer our customers highly advanced Rare Cell detection and analysis, and we feel fortunate to be able to partner with ScreenCell on such an important project"
Prenatal diagnosis is routine across the world and is especially valuable for women at advanced maternal age and those with high risk for chromosomal abnormalities. However, such diagnosis is often performed using invasive procedures, introducing the risk of complications for both the mother and fetus. In recent years, non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) on circulating cell free fetal DNA (cffDNA) in the maternal blood has been introduced, a method that combines advantages of both lower risk and cell-based specificity, but also has serious limitations.
ASI and ScreenCell are partnering to develop a new and highly reliable procedure for NIPT which would resolve these limitations. This will be achieved by successfully isolating and analyzing circulating fetal cells to enable accurate diagnosis for a much wider range of genetic abnormalities than currently available methods allow.
"Our expertise as a technology leader affords us excellent perspective on this rapidly advancing field of diagnostics. ASI is uniquely positioned to offer ScreenCell unmatched experience and imaging capabilities", said Limor Shiposh, ASI's Chief Executive Officer. "Adding ScreenCell's method for non-invasive prenatal testing to our extensive imaging offering will allow us to offer our customers highly advanced Rare Cell detection and analysis, and we feel fortunate to be able to partner with ScreenCell on such an important project", Mrs. Shiposh added.
"We see ASI as the ideal partner for advancing non-invasive prenatal diagnosis based on circulating fetal cells," said David Znaty, Chief Executive Officer of ScreenCell. "Our goal is to develop and introduce a new, low risk and high yield testing method that combines our great success in isolating Rare Circulating Cells together with the highly intelligent imaging and analysis capabilities provided by ASI's advanced platforms. We are very excited about developing such a comprehensive solution."
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