Truetide (LSE:TRUE), the AIM-listed investment company, says its wholly owned investee Paraytec has agreed heads of terms with VosBio, a US developer of non-invasive breath-sampling technology, to explore a joint research and development collaboration in early lung cancer detection.
The proposed collaboration would combine Paraytec's CX300 portable fluorescence detection instrument, which can identify labelled biomarkers at picomolar concentrations, with VosBio's Universal Breath Collector, a device that captures exhaled breath condensate rapidly and non-invasively.
VosBio has identified extracellular vesicles (EVs) in exhaled breath condensate at concentrations it believes are comparable to those in sputum, and holds data suggesting EV profiles may differ between healthy individuals and lung cancer patients, with patent applications filed covering EV counting, characterisation and ratio analysis.
The partnership is structured to test commercial and scientific viability before any further Group resources are committed, with a definitive collaboration agreement still to be signed.
VosBio already holds a fee-funded research collaboration with the University of Sheffield in cell and EV-based exhaled breath analysis.
The heads of terms are non-binding, and Truetide said a further announcement will follow once the definitive agreement is executed.
