A new collaboration will expand access to blood and urine-based cell-free DNA detection methods that will provide healthcare practitioners with highly accurate, non-invasive tools to identify and monitor for infection, rejection, and severity of organ damage in transplant and COVID-19 patients.

Eurofins Viracor, LLC (Lees Summit, MO, USA) has entered into an exclusive license agreement with Cornell University (Ithaca, NY, USA) to commercialize several ground-breaking and novel assays aimed at transforming the clinical management of COVID-19 and transplant patients impacted from tissue damage and infections. Surgical biopsy is critical in tracking damage of COVID-19 in the body, but the procedure can be painful and costly to the patient. Researchers at Cornell have developed an alternative to biopsy – a novel, noninvasive blood test to measure organ injury from COVID-19. The test uses circulating cell-free DNA (cfDNA) to gauge the damage that COVID-19 inflicts on cells, tissues and organs.

Additionally, cfDNA is a highly versatile analyte for monitoring the most critical complications of hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) for many blood disorders and cancers, including Graft-Versus-Host Disease, infection, graft failure and disease relapse. The agreement between Eurofins and Cornell will expand access to an innovative blood-based cfDNA methylation sequencing assay for early detection or prediction of major complications related to allogeneic HCT, thus improving the care of stem cell transplant patients. In another application, Eurofins intends to commercialize the novel cfDNA test used to identify the presence of urinary tract infections in kidney transplant patients and quantify the degree of damage to the kidney and bladder.

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