Abcodia, a newly formed company engaged in the validation and discovery of molecular biomarkers for disease diagnosis and screening, is seeking to advance the screening and diagnosis of pancreatic cancer and help save countless lives through the use of its human serum collected from over 202,000 volunteers.

Julie Barnes, CEO of Abcodia, said, “Amongst the 202,000 volunteers who donated serum, more than 300 have developed pancreatic cancer, and they all donated samples before the confirmed diagnosis, many serially over several years. We can access their detailed clinical and demographic data that allows sample matching by tumour type, age, ethnicity, and lifestyle, to facilitate well-designed prospective experimental studies, including as required samples from subjects with non-cancer pancreatic disease or healthy controls.

”Advancing an early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer is currently hampered by the lack of availability of quality preclinical samples. The current standard, CA19.9 falls short of what is needed and through the use of our prospective serum collection, and by working with industry collaborators and expert clinicians, we have a great opportunity to make a significant difference to our ability to detect this high mortality disease at a stage when treatment would prove more effective.”

Abcodia was formed earlier this year and has been granted rights to commercialize intellectual property from a serum biobank created by lead clinical scientists at the University College London.

The partners Abcodia are seeking are IVD companies seeking to discover new or validate existing pancreatic biomarkers, academics seeking ways to collaborate in the field of pancreatic cancer diagnosis, and foundations or philanthropists interested in supporting further research into this often fatal disease.