NanoView Biosciences, Inc. today launched its first product, the ExoView™ platform, to enable the accurate identification and characterization of exosomes. The platform is on display this week at the SLAS 2019 International Conference & Exhibition in Washington, DC.
Detection of EVs bound to the ExoView chip. The imager detects bound EVs when attached to a signal enhancing substrate. Using this methodology, EVs as small as 50nm can be detected and measured. Simultaneously, multi-color fluorescence imaging can be used to co-localize biomarkers on single EVs.
Exosomes are a type of extracellular vesicle, tiny particles released by cells as a means of communicating with other cells. The nucleic acids, lipids, and proteins carried by exosomes make them highly promising for diagnostic, prognostic, and even therapeutic use for a broad range of diseases including cancer. To date, no commercial technology has been capable of detecting and confirming exosome biomarkers with high specificity and sensitivity.
Like circulating tumor cells and cell-free DNA, which are now commonly analyzed via liquid biopsies for cancer and other diseases, exosomes have the advantage of being easily accessible through samples such as blood, urine, and saliva.
However, exosomes are difficult to isolate and detect with conventional technologies because these particles are up to 1 million times smaller than cells; cellular analysis platforms such as flow cytometry typically do not provide sufficient sensitivity; and other nanoparticle detection technologies do not deliver the specificity to differentiate between biologically relevant exosomes and other small particles or contaminants.
There is tremendous excitement in the scientific and clinical research communities around exosomes, which are already believed to be important for cardiology, regenerative medicine, neurodegenerative diseases, and cancer.
With the ExoView platform, for the first time scientists can fully characterize exosomes and validate their molecular cargo as biomarkers for disease. We believe this will be instrumental in ushering exosomes into routine clinical use for noninvasive testing and more personalized patient care.”
Jerry Williamson, CEO of NanoView Biosciences
The ExoView platform is the first commercially available product able to provide high-resolution sizing, counting, and phenotyping of exosomes at the individual vesicle level. The platform can measure the size of single exosomes as small as 50 nm and determine the concentration of exosomes expressing specific surface or molecular markers with excellent sensitivity.
This microarray-based technology enables label-free detection and sizing of exosomes with no purification required, no sample prep and minimal hands-on time. Captured exosomes can be phenotyped for surface and internal biomarkers. The ExoView platform can be used directly on complex biological samples and requires very little sample input.
This platform will be transformative in its ability to enhance our understanding of exosomes and their biological importance. By offering a higher-resolution view of exosomes and extracellular vesicles than has ever been possible, we believe the ExoView technology will ultimately enable future life science breakthroughs based on the use of extracellular vesicles in research and the clinic.”
George Daaboul, Chief Scientific Officer of NanoView Biosciences
SLAS attendees can learn more about the ExoView system by visiting NanoView Biosciences in booth 348 and viewing posters 1307-C and 1344-E.
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