Mar 31 2010
Nanogea, a nano-biotechnology company focused on commercializing the industry's most sensitive single molecular detection platform, is pleased to announce results regarding its Prostate Cancer diagnostic study.
In its first set of studies, Nanogea was able, with the use of its proprietary NanoCone-Enabled Atomic Force MicroscopyTM technology, to clearly differentiate Prostate-Specific Antigens (PSA) from the background and identify them at the level of individual molecules.
In a related experiment, Nanogea was able to locate single molecules of PSA in clinical samples directly from blood without amplification or other sample preparation steps. The blood sample was diluted by a factor of 400 in the experiment to reduce density of identified PSA molecules in a normal person's blood stream. However, a highly sensitive test is needed to monitor patients after prostatectomy surgery for recurrence of the disease. The company estimates that in the U.S. alone there are more than 840,000 living patients who have undergone prostatectomy surgery.
Dr. Joon Won Park, inventor of the NanoCone technology, commented, "We are delighted with the results. These studies demonstrate that our forced-based method is capable of detecting unprecedentedly low levels of the antigens in provided samples. He added, "Our approach is likely to be well-suited for a variety of other protein-based detection that current technologies like ELISA cannot. Moreover, we can bypass the lengthy and costly sample preparation steps required of similar tests, which we believe is a win-win for everyone involved."
Source: http://www.nanogea.com