Stilla Technologies and Atila Biosystems have agreed to market co-labelled digital PCR kits. The kits and assays, produced by California, US-based Atila, will be used on ‘naica’ – Stilla’s lead PCR instrument.
The digital PCR kits will be utilised for the detection of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) from liquid biopsy samples. These will be taken from breast, lung, melanoma, prostate, and colorectal cancer patients.
Stilla, with headquarters in America and Europe, will use its naica system, which uses six fluorescent channels, as the optimised system for Alita’s products. The kits will be designed for Research Use Only (RUO).
Liquid biopsy is one of the hot topics in medicine and is attractive to investors, with the liquid biopsy market predicted to reach $6.8bn by 2028, with a CAGR of 20.9%. Indeed, a liquid biopsy company won the 2022 Roddenberry Prize – Elypta scooping a $1m prize.
“We are witnessing the continued promise, utility, and proliferation of digital PCR in the analysis of liquid biopsies for use in therapeutic development and in patient diagnosis and monitoring of oncological disease,” says Philippe Mourère, president and CEO of Stilla Technologies.
“Co-developing products with a strong assay partner in Atila will allow highly standardised, fully optimized digital PCR liquid biopsy kits get into the hands of researchers who are working hard to decentralise such testing and bring personalized treatment into their clinical set up.”
Stilla and Atila plan to jointly showcase their developments at the upcoming AACR Annual Meeting 2023 in Florida, US.
