Glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) are polysaccharides with relevance across a wide range of areas in biology, nutrition, and medicine. As a result, there has been an increasing interest in fundamental and translational research on GAGs. Emerging applications encompass tissue engineering, transplantations, wound healing, and controlled drug releases. In clinical research, GAGs have long been implicated in conditions like arthritis, diabetes, and viral infections. GAGs are also widely sold as nutritional supplements.
“Research on GAGs has steadily increased over the years and their multifaceted role in health and disease has spurred the curiosity of larger segments of the research community. We hope that our service can unlock new avenues in GAG research by providing standardized and precise measurements. We are launching our sponsorship program with the intent to incentivize more academic research into this exciting field,” says Elypta CSO and co-founder Francesco Gatto
Using Elypta’s service, researchers will now be able to send serum, plasma, urine, cell cultures, and other tissue specimens to Elypta laboratories and receive a standardized quantification of the full GAG profile. The service uses the novel Elypta MIRAM™ Glycosaminoglycan Kit (for research use only), manufactured under contract by Merck at Merck’s Life Science facility in St. Louis, Missouri.
“Our primary focus at Elypta remains to develop a commercial liquid biopsy test for early detection and monitoring of a broad range of cancers. In this endeavor, we recognized that there are many important research questions in cancer but also other areas that others are better positioned to address. This is why we have decided to make our kits available for research use through the launch of this service,” says Elypta CEO Karl Bergman
The method underlying the Elypta MIRAM™ Glycosaminoglycan Kit uses ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography and tandem mass spectrometry to accurately measure the concentration and structural composition of chondroitin sulfate (CS), heparan sulfate (HS), and hyaluronic acid (HA). Measurements can be done in a wide array of research specimens and only requires comparatively small sample volumes to produce precise results across the full GAG profile.
About Elypta
Elypta is a Swedish molecular diagnostics company focused on reducing cancer mortality by enabling earlier detection and closer monitoring. The metabolism-based liquid biopsy platform in development measures GAGs as biomarkers and utilizes machine learning algorithms to generate cancer-type specific GAG scores. Elypta is advancing a broad clinical program across different cancers with the first indication expected to be early detection of recurrence in renal cell carcinoma.