公司使命

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背景：游离DNA和液体活检

游离DNA（circulating free DNA，cfDNA）是病理组织细胞或是正常组织细胞死亡后释放入血浆的降解DNA片段。游离DNA可以是不同来源的、游离存在于循坏系统中的DNA，包括来源于肿瘤的循环肿瘤DNA（circulating tumor DNA，ctDNA） ，或是来源于胎儿组织的循坏胎儿DNA（cell-free fetal DNA，cffDNA） 。游离DNA是一种在肿瘤和产前诊断领域被证明有重要临床价值的生物标记物。除此之外，游离DNA在多种疾病领域都有应用价值，例如败血症，脑膜炎，器官移植等领域。

液体活检（liquid biopsy）是对非固相生物组织（主要是血液）进行采样和分析的科学。液体活检可以使用游离DNA作为生物标记物来筛查、诊断、监测、研究多种疾病，例如肿瘤等。液体活检相较传统活检，主要的优势是其无创性， 因而，可以更早期、高效、价廉、准确。

广泛的科学研究表明，液体活检具有临床应用的重要优越性（例如，一些最近的文献 ^1-4）。 因此，该技术被世界经济论坛 （World Economic Forum，2017）⁵, 福布斯 （Forbes，2016）⁶, 以及麻省理工科技评论 （MIT Technology Review，2015）⁷ 列为将变革医疗领域的突破性科技。

使命

游离DNA 在血浆中的呈现数量很低。Apostle 南科征途致力于研发国际最好的原创科技 ^8-20 -Apostle MiniMax^TM 敏迈^TM 等系列硬核技术- 以从标准血液采集中有效抓取微量的游离DNA用于液体活检分析。 我们致力于通过这些原生性科技创新，提高液体活检的效率和准确率，从而最终提高患者生存率。

参考文献

[关于液体活检技术]

1. Liquid versus tissue biopsy for detecting acquired resistance and tumor heterogeneity in gastrointestinal cancers. Parikh et al. Nature Medicine. 25, 1415–1421 (2019)
2. Genome-wide cell-free DNA fragmentation in patients with cancer. Cristiano et al. Nature. 570, 385–389 (2019)
3. Detection and localization of surgically resectable cancers with a multi-analyte blood test. Cohen et al. Science. 359, 926-930 (2018)
4. Sensitive tumour detection and classification using plasma cell-free DNA methylomes. Shen et al. Nature. 563, 579–583 (2018)
5. These are the top 10 emerging technologies of 2017. World Economic Forum. Jun 26, 2017
6. Five Technologies That Will Disrupt Healthcare By 2020. Forbes. Mar 30, 2016
7. 10 Breakthrough Technologies 2015. MIT Technology Review. 2015

[关于 Apostle MiniMax 技术]
Apostle 技术在以下文献中被讨论或引用:

8. Cell-Free DNA Isolation Kit. Science. 17 May 2019:Vol. 364, Issue 6441, pp. 696. DOI: 10.1126/science.364.6441.696-a. (Featured in New Products section)
9. Enrichment of cell-free fetal DNA (cffDNA) from maternal plasma on a nanotechnology platform. Zhang et al. Manuscript under review.
10. A complete automation and reagent workflow for analysis of cfDNA: from plasma to variants. Roseman N, Parakh S, Lai K, Sheu J, Wei H, Niccum B, Chen T, Huang H, Barnes T, Lewis L, Chakravarty UD, and Potts A. Advances in Genome Biology and Technology (AGBT). (abstract #511). Marco Island, FL. Feb 23-26, 2020
11. G3viz: an R package to interactively visualize genetic mutation data using a lollipop-diagram. Xin G, Bo Z, Wenqi Z, et al. Bioinformatics. 2020; 36(3):928–929,
12. Correlation between mutations found in FFPE tumor tissue and paired cfDNA samples. Niccum B., Heath C., Saunders L., Hur A.，Patel A. Association for Molecular Pathology (AMP). (abstract #ST103). Baltimore, MD. November 7-9, 2019
13. Dynamics of Plasma EGFR T790M Mutation in Advanced NSCLC: A Multicenter Study. Yang et al. Targeted Oncology. 2019;14:719-728. Published: 06 November 2019.
14. Correlation between mutations found in FFPE tumor tissue and paired cfDNA samples. （n=8） Niccum B., Saunders L., Hur A.，Patel A. The American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG). (abstract #1766). Houston, TX. Oct 15, 2019
15. Comparison between mutation profiles of paired whole blood and cfDNA samples. Patel A., Saunders L., Hur A. The American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG). (abstract #1767). Houston, TX. Oct 15, 2019
16. Isolation of cell-free DNA (cfDNA) from plasma using Apostle MiniMax^TM High Efficiency cfDNA Isolation kit—comparison of fully automated, semi-automated and manual workflow processing. Brittany Niccum, PhD., Randy Pares and Antonia Hur. Beckman Coulter Life Sciences. Application Note. Sept 2019.
17. A workflow for medium-throughput isolation of cfDNA from plasma samples using Apostle MiniMax^TM on the KingFisher^TM Technology. Brittany Niccum, PhD. Beckman Coulter Life Sciences. Application Note. 2019.
18. Correlation between mutations found in FFPE tumor tissue and paired cfDNA samples. (n=3) Saunders L and Patel A. American Association for Cancer Research (AACR). (abstract #2233). Atlanta, GA. April 2, 2019
19. A new Scalable and automatable method for the extration of cfDNA. Saunders LP, Hur A, Niccum B, and Patel A. Advances in Genome Biology and Technology (AGBT). (abstract #419). Marco Island, FL. Feb 28, 2019
20. cfDNA Extraction from Plasma for Liquid Biopsy: Apostle MiniMax^TM High Efficiency cfDNA Isolation Kit. Beckman Coulter Life Sciences, Data Sheet. 2019.