ANGLE plc is pleased to provide a further update on its 80% owned portfolio company Parsortix Inc (“Parsortix”) which specialises in medical diagnostics.
Parsortix has developed an innovative separation platform technology for the isolation of cells in blood, including rare cells which occur in very low numbers, such as one cell within 500 million other cells.
As announced on 5 May 2011, ANGLE has been working with Parsortix seeking to demonstrate that the device has the capability to isolate cancer cells in blood.
Initial experiments have been successful in capturing cultured breast cancer cells that had been added to healthy whole blood. This “spiked blood” experiment is a pre-cursor to isolating cancer cells in cancer patient blood.
Whilst the results are encouraging, the experiments were early stage and are subject to further work in order to validate the initial findings which ANGLE is now undertaking. It is anticipated that this further work will be completed within three months.
The device has already been proven and independently verified to isolate intact foetal cells (as opposed to merely DNA fragments) in peripheral maternal blood. This offers the potential for non-invasive assessment of the health of the unborn child avoiding the current invasive techniques of amniocentesis and chorionic villi sampling.
ANGLE Founder and Chief Executive, Andrew Newland, commented:
“There is currently significant medical interest in the potential for the isolation of CTCs (circulating tumour cells) in blood to improve the diagnosis and treatment of cancer.
“Although recognising that the initial experiments are preliminary in nature, we are encouraged by our progress with cancer cell isolation to date and are confident in completing the necessary validatory work required to progress this technology further.”
For further information:
ANGLE plc 01483 685830
Andrew Newland, Chief Executive
Ian Griffiths, Finance Director
Collins Stewart Europe Limited
Matt Goode
0207 523 8350
Buchanan
Lisa Baderoon, Catherine Breen
020 7466 5000
Scott Harris
Stephen Scott, James O'Shaughnessy, Harry Dee
0207 653 0030
