KingOak Medicine and NuProbe Global Announce Strategic Collaboration to Develop MRD Detection Products Using BDA Technology

VCBeat has learned that NuProbe Global, a global molecular diagnostics company headquartered in Shanghai, China, and Houston, Texas, has entered into a strategic partnership with Beijing Xiangxin Biotechnology Co., Ltd. (Jinxiang Medicine). The two parties have agreed to collaborate on the development of minimal residual disease (MRD) detection products in the fields of urological and hematological malignancies, leveraging NuProbe’s Blocker Displacement Amplification (BDA) technology.

MRD refers to the small number of cancer cells that may remain in the body after treatment. MRD testing can be used for the preventive management of recurrence in cancer patients after treatment.

As physicians’ awareness of the importance of MRD testing continues to grow, the potential market size for MRD testing is poised for rapid expansion. CIC estimates that the total potential market for MRD testing in China will reach $14.5 billion by 2030.

However, MRD expression levels may be so low that they do not cause any physical symptoms or signs and are typically undetectable by conventional methods, posing significant technical challenges for R&D enterprises.

Jinxiang Medical is a “dual high-tech” enterprise driven by innovation in its full-process system. Headquartered in the Zhongguancun National Independent Innovation Demonstration Zone in Beijing, it operates testing and R&D centers in Beijing and Tianjin, with a total area of 5,000 square meters.

Leveraging its independently developed big data analytics platform for genomics, the company provides clinical solutions for precision oncology centered on genomics.

As one of the few NGS medical service companies with dual leadership in both solid tumors and hematologic malignancies, Jinxiang Medicine has established unique brand advantages in lung cancer, gastrointestinal tumors, urologic tumors, and hematologic malignancies. It has gained recognition from numerous clinical and laboratory experts in oncology and currently serves over 500 hospitals.

This collaboration with NuProbe Global signals that, leveraging its existing technological strengths, Jinxiang Medicine is poised to expand the clinical application of its precision oncology solutions from the diagnostic market to the MRD testing market.

NuProbe Global’s proprietary BDA technology is a unique, novel PCR-based mutation enrichment technique. Through innovative thermodynamic design during PCR amplification cycles, BDA technology effectively reduces the amplification efficiency of wild-type sequences, thereby enhancing low-frequency mutation signals.

By applying BDA technology, gene mutations (such as point mutations, insertions, and deletions) can be selectively amplified against a wild-type DNA background, thereby significantly enhancing the sensitivity of genetic testing.

While significantly enhancing detection sensitivity, the application of BDA technology also substantially reduces testing costs. Dr. Luo Junfeng, VP of R&D at NuProbe Global, stated: “By differentially amplifying wild-type and mutant sequences, BDA technology enriches low-abundance gene mutations, drastically reducing the amount of sequencing data wasted on wild-type sequences in platforms such as NGS. This can reduce the required sequencing data volume by more than 50-fold. The technology has demonstrated excellent performance in clinical laboratories across China and the United States, with broad applications in scenarios including tumor liquid biopsy, post-transplant rejection monitoring, and microbial infection detection.”

Based on this, the two companies plan to collaborate on the development of relevant detection methods, with the aim of monitoring treatment efficacy in cancer patients by tracking changes in gene mutations across multiple tests of sample types such as urine or plasma, thereby providing recommendations for further therapeutic strategies.

Chai Yingshuang, CEO of NuProbe Global, stated, “Golden Oak Medicine possesses China’s only proprietary gene database in the field of urologic oncology and the most comprehensive hemato-oncology gene database in China. Combined with our high-sensitivity BDA technology, this may lead to breakthrough products in the field of oncology.”

As the collaboration between the two parties advances, Jinxiang Medicine is poised to become one of the competitive enterprises in China’s MRD sector. This further signifies that Jinxiang Medicine has taken another step closer to realizing its strategic layout for full-industry-chain development in the field of precision oncology.

Dr. Lou Feng, Chief Technology Officer and Co-founder of Golden Oak Medicine, stated, “As one of the few companies in China currently operating at a leading level in both solid tumors and hematologic malignancies, Golden Oak Medicine has launched more than 30 testing products for applications such as hereditary cancer screening, companion diagnostics for targeted and immunotherapies, and tumor diagnostic classification. Furthermore, we are actively expanding our presence in early detection and screening, prognostic assessment, and dynamic monitoring across multiple cancer types. NuProbe Global’s technology can improve the sensitivity of NGS mutation detection by one to two orders of magnitude, making it highly suitable for MRD detection products.”

Dr. Cao Shanbai, CEO of Jinxiang Medicine, stated, “We look forward to collaborating with NuProbe Global to explore new translational applications. This partnership will support the application of our sequencing technologies in a broader range of oncology clinical settings.”