Wednesday 21st July, 2021. Izon Science congratulates BCAL Diagnostics on becoming a publicly traded company. The Australian-based company is now listed on the ASX – a significant milestone and reflection of BCAL’s commitment to finding a diagnostic solution for early breast cancer detection.
BCAL Diagnostics is initially focused on developing a test for Invasive Ductal Carcinoma (IDC), the most common type of breast cancer which constitutes 70-80% of all diagnosed breast cancer cases. Through their comprehensive research and development programme, they expect to expand their findings (1) to other breast cancer types. Based at the Charles Perkins Centre at Sydney University, and the Sydney Knowledge Hub, BCAL have been developing a biomarker panel that can be used to distinguish IDC at early stages (I & II). The test under development harnesses EV-lipidomics, i.e., mass spectrometry analysis of lipids derived from extracellular vesicles (EVs). The purification of IDC biomarkers from plasma samples will be co-developed with Izon Science using their qEV isolation platform, with the aim of developing a standardised and scalable EV-enriching platform to enable EV-based breast cancer diagnostics in the clinic.
“Early detection of breast cancer is an important component of the disease management process and key to enhanced survivability,” says Dr. Amani Batarseh, Chief Scientific Officer, BCAL Diagnostics. “BCAL’s lipid profiling for breast cancer is a novel diagnostic approach with a promising potential in prognosis, monitoring, and potentially prevention.”
In a letter to potential investors, BCAL Diagnostics Executive Chair, Jayne Shaw, explains that BCAL’s initial focus is to achieve Australian regulatory approval for its breast cancer diagnostic product to be employed alongside traditional mammography. As Shaw explains, the company also wish to develop a CLIA laboratory model so they can launch the test in the USA and achieve bigger goals: “Using sequential trials, BCAL’s broader goal is to increase the range of situations in which the product has been proven to be effective, leading towards the position where its use can improve international breast cancer testing for every woman, everywhere.”
By issuing 32,000,000 shares, BCAL have raised $10 million which will go towards the further development of the Breast Cancer Associated Lipids (BCAL) test for breast cancer prevention, screening, and monitoring. EV lipidomic studies represent a growing area of EV research and complements other approaches such as EV proteomic profiling and EV-RNA analysis.
