Telo Genomics Advances Its Lead Product Telo Genomics Advances Its Lead Product and Implements Automation to Its Workflow
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - January 19, 2022) - Telo Genomics Corp. (TSXV: TELO) (the "Company" or "TELO") announces the launch of a validation study to accelerate the commercialization of its lead product in development for smoldering multiple myeloma (SMM) patients. The Company also announces that it has recently implemented in its workflow several proprietary automation solutions that employed cutting edge machine learning and artificial intelligence algorithms.
- TELO has recently received the SMM patient samples pertaining to a validation study that TELO is launching. The clinical study will be conducted under the clinical leadership of Dr. Hans Knecht, Head of Hematology, Jewish General Hospital & McGill University, Montreal, Canada and TELO's Clinical Advisor. The samples were received in collaboration with the Francois Baclesse Cancer Center, Caen, France. The launched study targets to accelerate the validation of TELO's ongoing collaboration with the Mayo clinic to develop TELO's lead product, a prognostic test for smoldering multiple myeloma (SMM) patients.
TELO's lead test in development for SMM patients targets to identify high risk SMM patients that will benefit from immediate treatment intervention, and equally important, the test targets to confirm disease stability of low risk SMM patients who can be safely monitored by repeating the test every three months. The development stages & validation of this test are expected to be completed within 12-18 months. Once in the clinic, the test will conservatively benefit over 200,000 SMM patients in the USA alone with a potential total addressable market of over 500,000 tests per year.
Multiple Myeloma (MM) is a cancer that forms in plasma cells, a type of white blood cells. To date MM is a deadly incurable cancer. MM is preceded by 2 asymptomatic forms of the disease (precursors), recognized as monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS) and smoldering MM. MGUS progression rate to full stage MM is approximately 1% per year, hence considered low risk of progression. SMM progression rate to full stage MM is 15% per year. The progression of SMM patients to full stage MM constitutes a major concern to health care professionals in the management of the MM disease.
TELO's lead product in development for SMM has the potential to provide to the healthcare professionals a long-waited-for solution for the management of this group of patients. Currently SMM patients are monitored but not treated. The MM clinical community is diligently seeking non-invasive prognostic modalities to identify high risk SMM patients and confirm the disease stability of low risk SMM patients. The urgency in identifying such a prognostic tool for SMM patients was repeatedly presented by MM key opinion leaders during the American Society of Hematology (ASH) annual meeting that took place in December 2021, and the International Myeloma Workshop that was held in September 2021.
Currently a number of clinical trials to treat SMM patients are ongoing, however the progress of these trials is restrained by the lack of an effective tool to identify high risk patients. The treatment cost of diagnosed full stage MM patient exceeds $100,000 per year. Treating 80% of SMM patient group unnecessarily at this cost creates a substantial burden on health care systems.
- TELO also announces that over the last 12-months it has conducted several internal R&D projects to enhance its throughput, maximize accuracy and elevate its efficiency. These projects included: 1- increased automation and batch processing to the microscopy component of the workflow, 2- introduction of machine learning algorithms to facilitate automated target cell selection, a key step in the single cell analysis that enriches the value of TeloView analytics, and 3- enhanced the processing capacity of the TeloView platform. These projects are now completed, validated and implemented.
The implementation of these enhancements to TELO's workflow increased the efficiency and productivity by over 40%. The key advantages of these improvements include: 1- expedite the completion of clinical studies, 2- simplify the process of technology adoption by potential partners or licensees in the future, 3-lower sample processing cost by allowing TELO's high qualified human assets to maximize multitasking, 4- minimize the probabilities of human introduced errors.
"Telo Genomics is committed to implement cutting edge modalities including machine learning and artificial intelligence to its workflow to maintain its leadership as the world's most comprehensive three-dimensional telomere platform," said Sherif Louis, TELO's CEO. The recent bundle of enhancements will bring TELO in line with recent industry trends and requirements for automation and high throughput operations."
About Telo Genomics
Telo Genomics is a biotech company pioneering the most comprehensive telomere platform in the industry with powerful applications and prognostic solutions. These include liquid biopsies and related technologies in oncology and neurological diseases. Liquid biopsy is a rapidly growing field of significant interest to the medical community for being less invasive and more easily replicated than traditional diagnostic approaches. By combining our team's considerable expertise in quantitative analysis of 3D telomeres with molecular biology and artificial intelligence to recognize disease associated genetic instability, Telo Genomics is developing simple and accurate products that improve day-to-day care for patients by serving the needs of pathologists, clinicians, academic researchers and drug developers. The benefits of our proprietary technology have been substantiated in over 150 peer reviewed publications and in 25 clinical studies involving more than 3,000 patients with multiple cancers and Alzheimer's disease. Our lead application, TELO-MM is being developed to provide important, actionable information to medical professionals in the treatment of Multiple Myeloma, a deadly form of blood cancer. For more information please visit www.telodx.com.
For further information, please contact:
Hugh Rogers, Director
416-673-8487
info@telodx.com
MaRS Centre, South Tower, 101 College Street, Suite 200, Toronto, ON, M5G 1L7
www.telodx.com