ACEA Biosciences, Inc., announces a major breakthrough in cardiotoxicity testing and limited-time free-access to customers
San Diego, CA
June 18, 2010
ACEA Biosciences, Inc., with headquarters in San Diego, CA, is pleased to announce the early availability of its unique RTCA Cardiotoxicity testing system as a limited-time, no fee service for testing chemical compounds for cardiotoxicity.
This advanced microelectronic technology, which monitors the beating, stem-cell derived and other cardiomyocytes, was recently presented on June 16th, 2010, at the World Pharmaceutical Congress, held in Philadelphia. The presentation, by Yama A. Abassi, Senior Director of Assay Development and Cell Biology, ACEA Biosciences, was entitled: "Pre-clinical Safety Assessment of Drug Candidates Using Stem Cell Derived Cardiomyocytes Together with the New xCELLigenceRTCA Cardio Detection System”.
Cardiac toxicity is a major concern in drug development and it is imperative that clinical candidates are thoroughly tested for adverse cardiac effects earlier in the drug discovery process. The major bottleneck for in vitro predictive cardiac toxicity screening has stemmed from lack of a reliable cellular model system available in large enough quantities for low to medium throughput assays and the unavailability of a reliable detection system. ACEA Biosciences, with its worldwide cooperation partner Roche Applied Science, will make available the testing services on limited number of chemical compounds for customers at no cost. This limited time offer will demonstrate the quality and usefulness of ACEA's microelectronic, cardiomyocytes-based assay system, the RTCA Cardio System, scheduled for commercialization later this year.
According to Dr. Yama Abassi, of ACEA Biosciences, this technology represents a "breakthrough in cardiotoxicity testing." He continued: "The RTCA Cardio Instrument, employing much of the technology present in its xCELLigence System, marketed by Roche on a worldwide basis, will finally allow early detection of potential cardiotoxicity in the drug development process. The label-free, real-time assay technology offers the user many advantages in this important application. The beating and viability of the cardiomyocytes can be monitored on the same platform, allowing for screening compounds with potential cardiosafety liability such as inducing arrhythmia".
Dr. Xiaobo Wang, ACEA Vice President and CTO stated: "We are very pleased to offer this pre-launch testing service to our customers at no cost. We are excited that our unique technology will finally allow assessment of the cardiosafety of drug candidates early in the drug development process. We look forward to working together with the scientists in this important area and providing them the important cardiotoxicity information about their compounds".
Appropriate forms and additional information concerning this limited-time offer can be found on our web site:
www.aceabio.com/company/Cardiooffer
Media inquiries in USA may be directed to:
Dr. James O’Connell, CEO
ACEA Biosciences Inc.
