AuramerBio makes diagnosis easier, faster and smarter

13 May 2016

AuramerBio makes diagnosis easier, faster and smarter

A new medical diagnostics start-up company spun out of Victoria University of Wellington is set to revolutionise the way medical professionals diagnose and monitor the health of their patients.

Currently many diagnostic tests rely on antibodies, which are used as probes to detect a targeted molecule. The common pregnancy test, for example, detects pregnancy when an antibody indicator binds to a glycoprotein (hCG), found in urine.

The company, AuramerBio, is developing a portfolio of sensing technologies that can be used in a range of medical and environmental contexts, but which use aptamers rather than antibodies.

Aptamers could be described as synthetic antibodies, single-stranded DNA or RNA molecules that can bind to pre-selected targets.

They are regarded as having many advantages over antibodies, including being able to bind to molecules a fraction of the size of proteins typically targeted by antibodies. Moreover, as they are made synthetically and are not animal-derived, they can be produced much more quickly and cheaply.

“Antibodies can take six to twelve months to develop,” says AuramerBio chief executive Jeremy Jones. “It takes less than a month for us to get to an equivalent point.”

Aptamers, he predicts, are poised to disrupt the $40 billion dollar antibody market.

“In some cases, our technology could completely eliminate the need to send samples away to an offsite lab for expensive testing. The impact could be enormous.”

Until recently, the use of aptamers in diagnostic testing has been limited because the bonds aptamers form with target molecules have been too weak for aptamers to be effective as indicators.

This is exactly what distinguishes AuramerBio from its competitors says Mr Jones—the development of a way to design aptamers that have an unusually strong binding capacity, so that the aptamers stick extremely well to small molecules.

“When you combine that with the sensor device we’re developing, that translates to being able to measure the target molecules at extremely low concentrations,” he says. “Stronger binding means your device is much more sensitive.”

AuramerBio will largely impact clinicians, doctors and their patients. For instance, the team has developed an aptamer to more accurately detect estradiol, an important female sex hormone which regulates female reproductive cycles.

AuramerBio is an excellent example of the benefits of cross-disciplinary research, having come out a collaboration between Professor Ken McNatty and Dr Shalen Kumar at Victoria’s School of Biological Sciences, Dr Justin Hodgkiss’ team at Victoria’s School of Chemical and Physical Sciences and Professor Jadranka Travas-Sejdic’s team at the University of Auckland’s School of Chemical Sciences.

The research combined biology, in the design of synthetic antibodies, with engineering and surface chemistry, in the development of the electrochemical-sensing device.

As is often the case, the collaboration involved serendipitous encounters.

“Aptamers really captured my imagination from when I first learned about them, but a few chance meetings at the right time gave me the opportunity to actually pursue that interest,” says Dr Hodgkiss.

“Firstly, finding that a world-leading aptamer programme was already happening just down the corridor in Ken and Shalen's lab. And secondly, when prospective PhD student, Omar Alsager, approached me about research into biosensor technology. Once Omar and Shalen got together, things moved very quickly.”

Dr Kumar, co-founder of AuramerBio and the company’s chief technical officer says: “It’s great to be able to show that we can do amazing research in New Zealand that you don’t need to relocate offshore to create world-wide impact and build a successful career in science.”

AuramerBio was launched internationally in April at the Aptamers 2016, a symposium held in Oxford, United Kingdom, and which bought together researchers and industry interested in the therapeutic, diagnostic, analytical applications of aptamers.

For more information visit www.auramerbio.com

ENDS

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