Agena Bioscience

Agena Bioscience was formed in 2014 when venture capital firm, Telegraph Hill Partners, acquired the Bioscience Department of Sequenom, a developer and manufacturer for the molecular diagnostic market. 

Agena Bioscience is pioneering precision medicine with its cost-effective mass spectrometry machine that has an abundance of applications in fields such as SNP genotyping, gene expression research, liquid biopsies for tumor profiling and methylation of DNA. 

Agena Bioscience has developed various diagnostic tools and products to assist doctors and providers with providing proper care to patients.

When initiating treatment, healthcare providers factor in dosages, patient weight, age and even gender when prescribing the standard dosage. Clinically, however, individuals respond differently to active pharmaceutical ingredients and this is where genotyping can augment patient care. Pharmacogenetics investigates the influence of a single gene on dosing efficacy and toxicities. Analyzing genes provides an accurate pathway to optimize drug therapy and medicine metabolization.

Genetic, environmental, and developmental factors that can interact, causing variations in drug response among patients

DNA is extracted from a self-collected buccal swab which produces takes a detailed profiling of 20 different gene variants that play a factor in drug metabolism. 

List of gene variations detected by the MassArray VeriDose Core Panel

Liquid Biopsy is a less-invasive alternative to surgical biopsies which enables physicians to obtain further information on a tumor’s progression, by drawing 5mL of a patient’s blood. While liquid biopsies have the potential to revolutionize cancer diagnosing, it is best used alongside tissue samples. 

The genomic information retrieved determines disease progression and treatment resistance best used in molecular oncology and hematopathology.