Sengenics Launches SEROMAX, an At-Home, Antibody Sample Collection Kit That Will Revolutionise Patient Recruitment and Monitoring in Clinical Trials
Sengenics, the Functional Proteomics Company, today announced the launch of SEROMAX, a sample collection kit which only requires a pin-prick amount of blood for quantifying antibodies or autoantibodies. Conventional antibody sample collection methods require patients to visit a clinical site where a physician would commonly need to draw a minimum of 0.5 ml of blood. This is followed by costly cold chain processes before the sample reaches a test laboratory for assay and analysis. By using a proprietary matrix to stabilise antibodies, the SEROMAX kit simplifies this process, enabling shipping at room temperature. This is then combined with the ultra-high sensitivity of KREX protein arrays to produce results that are identical to conventionally collected samples.
“The ability to do remote antibody sample collection, for example at home, at work or at a field site, and to deliver samples to a testing lab at room temperature is incredibly powerful. Our standard protocol with KREX arrays only requires 1 microlitre of serum or plasma with a linearity detection in the order of 4 to 5 magnitudes at a picogram detection level. Using the SEROMAX kit allows us to recover sufficient antibodies from whole blood to perform high-plex immuno-profiling assays, with a high correlation (up to 0.98) with assay data on serum prepared by standard methods,” said Professor Jonathan Blackburn, CSO, Sengenics.
One of the most common delays that clinical trials face is in patient follow-up. With SEROMAX enabling at-home sample collection, follow-ups in relevant clinical trials can be simplified, without compromising the quality of subsequent serological assays. SEROMAX also enables monitoring of any flare-up events patients may experience following routine treatments, without requiring regular return visits to a clinic to access a trained phlebotomist.
This kit can benefit researchers working in the COVID-19 R&D space with sample collection for seroprevalence studies and for monitoring of vaccine trials. The utilisation of SEROMAX addresses concerns an individual may have towards enrolment and continued participation throughout a vaccine trial by providing participants an easy alternative without leaving the safety of their home.
SEROMAX is highly complementary to the Sengenics range of protein arrays which includes IMMUNOME, OncoREX p53, CTA and KREX-based custom arrays. Most recently, Sengenics has launched the ImmuSAFE product range which is a multi-domain serology test that enables highly quantitative determination of both the level and target location of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in an individual with a sensitivity and specificity of 100%.
About Sengenics
Sengenics is a Functional Proteomics company that leverages its patented KREX technology to discover autoantibody biomarker signatures for prediction of drug response and severe immune-related adverse events (irAEs). KREX can also be used to identify autoantibody biomarkers to diagnose cancer, autoimmune, neurodegenerative or infectious diseases with higher sensitivity and specificity than conventional diagnostic tests. Some autoantibodies that are identified as diagnostic biomarkers may be protective and have potential in themselves as therapeutic biomolecules.
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