WALTHAM, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--GoodCell (“LifeVault Bio”), the company decoding human health to extend and improve the quality of life through technology powered by science, today announced it has filed a patent that will extend its intellectual property (IP) for quantifying risk and assessing cell quality to identify and validate indicators of COVID-19 morbidity and mortality. The filing marks a critical step toward a test to identify patients at risk of COVID-19 complications, which could aid public health officials’ decisions for developing safe reopening strategies and identifying the most vulnerable groups. Additionally, the test could help clinicians more accurately triage patients most likely to become severe SARS-CoV-2 cases and improve treatment outcomes by identifying individuals likely to respond to pro-inflammatory driver inhibitors that are being evaluated in clinical trials.
“Researchers across the globe have made incredible strides in understanding COVID-19 over the past few months, but there is still much about the virus and its most severe effects that we don’t know,” said Trevor Perry, co-founder and chief executive officer, GoodCell. “As the universal language uniting all human life, our cells could hold the key to answering many of these questions, especially if we’re able to study them year over year. By aggregating and analyzing cellular data, we see a tremendous opportunity to arm researchers, doctors and individuals with the health information they need to prepare for a resurgence or other health threats, locally or globally.”
GoodCell Diagnostics, the data driver behind GoodCell’s health tracking and personal biobanking platform that aggregates various biological data streams to inform and empower an individual’s next best health action, uniquely measures and monitors both inherited and acquired genetic variations in blood and over time. These accumulated variations have been linked to higher risk for certain blood cancers, heart disease and a dysfunctional response to inflammation and infection. As such, by pairing this with an in-depth assessment of blood-based biomarkers, GoodCell can turn blood into unprecedented scientific insight capable of enhancing risk assessment for a variety of diseases.
Fueled with these data sets, researchers, clinicians and pharmaceutical organizations can now rethink how they assess risk of SARS-CoV-2 complications, which are predominantly linked to an inflammatory response known as a cytokine storm that is estimated to impact one-in-five patients. The aberrant immune response has been linked to acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), which can lead to ventilator reliance, chronic lung injury, venous thrombosis, acute cardiac injury and chronic cardiac damage, resulting in cardiomyopathy. Research has linked some of the genetic variations using the technology in GoodCell’s patent filing to a dysfunctional response to inflammation and infection.
“Research validating the linkages between genetic changes we inherit or accumulate over our lifetimes and adverse clinical outcomes is mounting,” said Brad Hamilton, co-founder and chief science officer, GoodCell. “Many of the genetic variations for which we are testing have been shown to correlate directly with the dysfunctional immune response associated with COVID-19. Therefore, a test capable of detecting and monitoring these somatic changes could be instrumental to predicting those most at risk for poor clinical outcomes when infected with the virus, empowering the early intervention necessary to save lives.”
GoodCell is uniquely positioned to support the evaluation of these genetic linkages as the only company with the technology and resources to extract, analyze and store vital components of the blood – DNA, plasma and nucleated blood cells – for long-term analysis. This allows GoodCell to closely measure and monitor the accumulation of genetic change and damage over time to advance global understanding of how genetic variation and disease predisposition impact morbidity and mortality, both upon infection and over time. Through partnerships with various research institutions, biobanks, government entities and healthcare networks, GoodCell seeks to apply the full breadth of its testing capacity to quantify risk for COVID-19 and other diseases. Additionally, the company will seek engagements with commercial institutions to improve their ability to enhance testing capabilities using the best data that support ongoing risk assessment studies across numerous disease categories. Some of these partnerships will also support burgeoning efforts to qualify cellular therapy processes and materials that hold the potential to treat currently intractable ailments, and power individual health monitoring and tracking.
The ability to assess and stratify the most at-risk individuals through cell quality testing could greatly enhance COVID-19 response efforts on the part of frontline healthcare providers, pharmaceutical companies and governments. For example, hospitals and testing centers could identify those least susceptible to an adverse disease outcome and, therefore, most suitable for frontline work. Similarly, governments could better inform reopening strategies by understanding high-risk segments of the population. Further applications extend across the healthcare spectrum, with the ability to correlate genetic variation with immuno-response, creating opportunities to improve current treatment strategies, develop more effective therapies, and guide the roll out of treatments and vaccines that prioritize the most vulnerable.
“It is within our power to come out of this tragedy a stronger human race, with the ability to take control of our health, protect the wellbeing of our families and create a society in which we can live our longest, healthiest and best lives,” continued Perry. “That world starts in our cells – the common language that binds us all – and becomes reality through technology-first, science-backed solutions like GoodCell that enable every individual to own their health future. Imagine what we could learn and how prepared we could be for the next global-scale event if we had access to millions of stored cell samples. With the right technology, we can translate samples into insights that allow us to predict, proactively address and, ultimately, mitigate disease to make healthcare more personalized and empowering for all.”
To learn more about partnership opportunities with GoodCell Diagnostics, please reach out to GoodCell Chief Medical Officer Salvatore G. Viscomi, M.D., at salvatore.viscomi@goodcell.com.
About GoodCell
GoodCell’s vision is to give every person control over their health by providing access to a science-backed, technology-forward platform that decodes the common language of our cells and extends the quality of life for individuals, their families and all of humankind. The company’s platform uniquely combines personal biobanking, novel diagnostic development and data to provide individuals and their families the ability to securely test, track and respond to health risks, while enabling the scientific community to advance diagnostics and drug development at scale to create next-generation safeguards for global health. Driven by mounting evidence in support of cellular therapy and united in the belief that you should be empowered to take control of your health, GoodCell is led by a founding team of science and technology innovators with a diverse set of medical research. Learn more at: www.goodcell.com.
