Original from: genomeweb

Stilla Technologies and Atila BioSystems said on Thursday that they will codevelop digital PCR kits for cancer liquid biopsy applications.

The firms will jointly market digital PCR kits and assays produced by Atila for use on Stilla's six-color Naica system. The research-use-only kits will be for the detection of circulating tumor DNA from liquid biopsy samples from patients with breast, lung, melanoma, prostate, colorectal, and other cancers. 

"Codeveloping products with a strong assay partner in Atila will allow highly standardized, fully optimized digital PCR liquid biopsy kits to get into the hands of researchers who are working hard to decentralize such testing and bring personalized treatment into their clinical setup," said Philippe Mourère, president and CEO of Stilla, in a statement.

Youxiang Wang, CEO at Atila, noted that the Naica system is well suited to detect rare mutations in complex samples. "The Naica system set itself apart for these types of samples through its software capabilities, particularly its compensation matrix, which affords unsurpassed control over specificity and the ability to detect false positives, ultimately providing researchers with more precise readouts when using our assays," he said in a statement.

Atila partnered with Qiagen last year to launch a RUO noninvasive prenatal testing digital PCR assay on the QIAcuity platform.

Stilla, meanwhile, recently collaborated with Promega to develop a workflow integrating the Naica system with Maxwell automated sample prep.

Source: Stilla Technologies, Atila BioSystems Partner to Codevelop Liquid Biopsy Digital PCR Kits