Opens new 10,000 square feet laboratory to scale up its R&D and business operations.
Genomic medicine company Lucence Diagnostics opened its new headquarters and molecular diagnostics laboratory in Singapore on 30 January 2019. The 10,000 square feet facility will help the company scale up its R&D operations, meet the growing demand for its clinical services, and expand to new markets.
The company was set up in 2016, a spin-off from the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR). Its mission is to reduce avoidable cancer deaths through early detection and better treatment selection. It focuses on the most common cancers in Asia, breast, colon, liver, lung and nose.
Their developments include blood tests for rapid and non-invasive cancer detection. Such cancer blood tests are referred to as a liquid biopsy. Conventional tissue biopsy requires the surgical removal of tissue from the body, which is invasive and slow.
Liquid biopsy tests are non-invasive, fast and affordable because it only requires one draw of blood. The blood tests are currently available in 8 countries within Southeast Asia.
Their latest flagship blood test LiquidHALLMARK is able to detect 14 types of cancers, 50 genetic mutations and 2 viruses. It is the world’s first blood test that detects both cancer-causing genetic mutations and viruses with 99.9 percent accuracy. The new test will help physicians select the right targeted therapies and immunotherapies for their patients.
The company is working on a blood test for the early detection of multiple cancers and will launch a clinical study with 100,000 participants across Asia this year. [APBN]