Clearbridge BioMedics and Leica Biosystems to co-market automated solutions for circulating tumour cell (CTC) analysis

Clearbridge BioMedics and Leica Biosystems have today announced a partnership, co-marketing each other’s products to support circulating tumour cell (CTC) research. This is specifically for the Clearbridge BioMedics ClearCell® FX CTC enrichment system and the Leica Biosystems’ BOND RX staining platform. This new partnership provides an integrated and automated workflow for CTC enrichment and immunostaining, improving on major challenges in CTC liquid biopsy testing, such as handling and standardization.
The ClearCell® FX System is an automated CTC enrichment system, powered by the patented CTChip® FR1 microfluidics biochip. Using a label-free approach, the ClearCell® FX System retrieves wholly-intact and viable CTCs from a standard blood draw. The gentle sorting principle retains high cell integrity and cell surface antigen expression. This coupled with single-step CTC retrieval, provides a seamless integration into pathology lab workflows.
Automated CTC staining on a glass slide is then performed on Leica Biosystems’ BOND RX. The BOND RX platform is an open and flexible system that efficiently automates staining for immunofluorescence (IF), immunohistochemistry (IHC) and fluorescent in-situ hybridization (FISH) assays. It provides a high-throughput workflow with exceptional consistency and minimal hands-on time.
Linking these two advanced technologies will empower researchers and laboratories with an integrated solution for CTC enrichment and immunostaining, accelerating the development of clinical applications using CTCs.
“The global liquid biopsy market has been growing significantly and will continue to grow, due to trends such as rising prevalence of cancer, preference for personalized medicine and the move towards non-invasive procedures. Today’s partnership announcement between Leica Biosystems and Clearbridge BioMedics provides clinical research laboratories with a seamless end-to-end enrichment and immunostaining solution for CTCs. This will support the development of new therapies and diagnostics for cancer patients,” said Dr Michael Paumen, CEO of Clearbridge BioMedics. www.clearbridgebiomedics.comwww.leicabiosystems.com