SAN DIEGO and SHANGHAI, Oct. 19, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — Fudan University’s Taizhou Health Science Institute and Singlera Genomics, a UC San Diego spinout company focused on non-invasive early cancer detection, today announce initial results from the Taizhou Longitudinal Study (TLS) during the 2018 American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) Annual Meeting.  An oral presentation highlighted data showing Singlera’s PanSeer assay can detect five types of cancer up to four years before conventional diagnosis using a single blood draw.

The TLS study began in 2007 collecting plasma samples from over 120,000 healthy individuals. Study participants were monitored for a 10-year period through cooperation with local hospitals and health insurance databases, allowing longitudinal information to be collected. 

Previous studies have reported that biomarker signals from early cancers are difficult to detect. By utilizing Singlera’s proprietary PanSeer assay for targeted DNA methylation haplotype next-generation sequencing, the research team was able to demonstrate early detection of colorectal, esophageal, liver, lung, and stomach cancer four years prior to disease diagnosis.  These five cancer types represent 43% of cancer mortality in the US and 74% of cancer mortality in China.

“This study for the first time demonstrates non-invasive early detection of multiple types of cancer four years before conventional diagnosis,” said Yuan Gao, Ph.D., Co-founder and Chairman of Singlera Genomics. “Many cancers are detected too late for an effective treatment option to be available; by moving the date of cancer diagnosis up by several years, cancer mortality can be significantly reduced.”

“While other studies have demonstrated that solid tumors can be non-invasively detected using blood biomarkers, previous work has mostly focused on symptomatic patients that have already been diagnosed with cancer through other means,” said Li Jin, professor at Fudan University and organizer of the longitudinal study. “By combining Singlera’s unique assays with the TLS cohort, our research team was able to show that true early detection of cancer can become a reality.”

The research team is in the process of extending this early detection approach to additional cancer types, and Singlera is currently looking for collaboration partners.

Fudan University (http://www.fudan.edu.cn/en/)
Fudan University, established in 1905, is located in Shanghai, China. The name “Fudan” originated from a famous statement, meaning unremitting effort. Fudan University comprises 17 full-time schools (including 66 specialties) and 69 departments across 4 campuses. It has 68 specialties for Bachelor’s Degree Candidates, 209 specialties for Master’s Degree Candidates, and 157 specialties for Doctoral Degree Candidates. It has nearly 44,300 students, including full-time students, students in Continuing Education or Network Education, as well as overseas students.

Singlera Genomics Inc. (www.singlera.com)
Singlera Genomics Inc., a company focusing on non-invasive genetic diagnosis, was co-founded in July 2014 in San Diego, California. The company currently has R&D centers and business operations in both La Jolla, California, and Shanghai, China. Singlera has proprietary technologies in single cell sequencing, DNA methylation, and bioinformatics.

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