Technology Overview

Over the years, Milagen has developed and applied its unmatched proprietary technologies to analyze the whole proteome from any patients with a given disease.

For instance, proteome analysis is performed on hundreds of patients with early stage localized cancer, and hundreds of normal controls.

Using our proprietary technology, comparative analysis of the whole proteome of hundreds of patients and hundreds of controls is carried out to identify biomarkers that are specific for the early detection of cancer.

These biomarkers are then thoroughly validated using independent group of patients, to confirm the clinical application of the biomarkers.

Core Technology

Milagen’s Core Technology includes proprietary technology and extensive clinical samples platforms:

• A proprietary collection of mono-specific capturing agents (polyclonal antibodies) against the majority of molecules composing the human proteome. These capturing agents are specifically raised against tens of thousands of molecules present in normal and diseased organs. These capturing agents are used to perform comparative analysis of the whole proteome of hundreds of normal and diseased individuals to discover molecular signatures of early stage localized cancer, disease progression, or therapy management.
• Milagen has developed a proprietary proteomic platform technology, referred to as Matrix Protein Array TechnologyTM (MPAT). MPAT is a high-throughput screening technology based on a multiplex protein immunoassay. This proprietary technology is coupled to a data acquisition and analysis system enabling proteome screening of a large number of patients and normal individuals with a large number of capturing agents. The MPAT allows comprehensive analysis of the proteome of hundreds of patients using biological samples, such as tissue, serum or other biological fluids.
• An extensive collection of clinical samples representing major diseases. Each clinical sample is accompanied by anonymous relevant clinical information, including the stage of disease, its grade, histological type and classification (e.g.,according to the American Joint Committee on Cancer, AJCC).
• The proteome of hundreds of clinical samples from patients and normal individuals is comparatively analyzed to identify biomarker signatures for early detection, prognosis or therapy management of the disease of interest.

Target Discovery and Validation

Targets are first identified in a primary screening using a large number of antibodies on matching normal and disease clinical samples. Targets that appear differentially expressed in disease versus normal undergo further screening and a step-wise selection process for increased validation through different functional in vitro assays. Targets that are identified through this process exhibit a high prevalence in the patients.

Validated targets can be selected for diagnostic applications, for disease management, or for both, depending on the nature and properties of the targets.