Advanced Biological Laboratories, Mayo Clinic Laboratories Collaborate On Test Development To Help Patients With Cytomegalovirus Infection

Luxembourg Ville, Luxembourg and Rochester, MN (PRWEB) - Advanced Biological Laboratories (ABL), S.A., a Luxembourg-based diagnostics company and leader in virology genotyping, and Mayo Clinic Laboratories have announced a collaboration. The two organizations are working together to develop a clinical test that will detect mutations associated with antiviral resistance in human cytomegalovirus.

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is a widespread and common virus that infects people of all ages. Once infected, a person retains the virus for life. Most people don’t even know they have CMV because it rarely causes problems in healthy people. However, CMV infection can cause serious health problems for people with a weakened immune system and for unborn babies. A CMV infection can even be fatal.

“This new test will target the specific genes UL54 and UL97 of CMV,” says Chalom Sayada, M.D., Ph.D., CEO of Advanced Biological Laboratories. “It will aid health care providers who are managing patients infected with CMV who have potential drug resistance to antiviral compounds.”

Based on a next-generation sequencing (NGS) method, the assay sequences PCR amplicons of CMV UL54 and UL97. The test is coupled with ABL’s software called DeepChek-CMV, which is used to analyze sequencing data and provide an interpretation of potential drug resistance in cytomegalovirus.

“We are extremely proud to support the development of this lab-developed test through the provision of our DeepChek-CMV software and are hoping to make CMV personalized treatment adaptation a reality for these patients suffering from the CMV infection,” says Dr. Sayada.

Mayo Clinic has a financial interest in the new technology referenced in this news release. Mayo Clinic will use any revenue it receives to support its not-for-profit mission in patient care, education and research.

About Advanced Biological Laboratories
Advanced Biological Laboratories (ABL), S.A., is a diagnostic and medical software company founded in 2000 as a spin-off from CRP-Santé Luxembourg. ABL's products offer to infectious disease clinicians, virology and microbiology laboratories optimal and efficient solutions (assays and software systems related to HIV, tuberculosis, HCV, HBV, HPV, CMV, HPV, flu) for sequencing (DeepChek®) clinical genotyping, viral load (UltraGene™) and drug resistance analysis, including powerful fully integrated databases and analysis systems that combine standard and high-throughput next-generation sequencing data. ABL took control of TherapyEdge, Inc. in 2004, and in 2013, the rights to all viral hepatitis B- and C-related assets from EVIVAR MEDICAL as well as a personalized medicine electronic medical record system (EMR) in infectious disease from GlaxoSmithKline in 2016. In July 2018, ABL acquired CDL Pharma to develop CRO-related services and assays manufacturing capacity. ABL has a comprehensive suite of healthcare-management products, including Nadis®, TherapyEdge®, ViroScore®, SeqHepB, DeepChek®, UltraGene®, VisibleChek®, HepatiC® and the DPM used for data and patient management, monitoring and personalized reporting applications. In 2012, some of ABL's products also received CE-marking for IVD use. ABL's products like ViroScore® Suite and DeepChek® are for research use only in the United States, and the data-processing module is an FDA-registered class I medical device. These are currently available for research use only.

About Mayo Clinic Laboratories and the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology
The Mayo Clinic Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology and its reference laboratory, Mayo Clinic Laboratories, provide advanced laboratory testing and pathology services to support 4,000 health care organizations around the world. Revenue from this testing supports medical education and research at Mayo Clinic, a nonprofit worldwide leader in medical care, research and education for people from all walks of life. Complemented by collaborations with diagnostic and biotechnology companies, the department maintains a robust diagnostic test-development program, launching more than 150 new tests each year.

About Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit organization committed to clinical practice, education and research, providing expert, comprehensive care to everyone who needs healing. Learn more about Mayo Clinic. Visit the Mayo Clinic News Network.