Beckman Coulter Life Sciences Enters Liquid Biopsy Partnership with Apostle Inc.

Indianapolis, Indiana (February 28, 2019) – At the Advances in Genome Biology and Technology (AGBT) General Meeting*, Beckman Coulter Life Sciences announces the launch of Apostle MiniMax™ High Efficiency Cell-Free DNA Isolation Kit through an exclusive partnership with Apostle, a liquid biopsy company. As cfDNA workflows move beyond theoretical and into human health applications, Apostle's industry leading chemistry paired with Beckman Coulter Life Sciences’ portfolio of genomic reagents and liquid handling platforms enables researchers to meet the growing demands for sequencing of tumor-derived cfDNA.

Surpassing industry standards for yield and purity of cfDNA, Apostle MiniMax™ is a magnetic nanoparticle-based kit to extract cfDNA from plasma utilizing manual or automated workflows. Due to limited cfDNA concentration, sufficient yield for next-generation sequencing (NGS) or other downstream applications can require higher volumes of plasma. As the volume increases, issues such as recovery efficiency and workflow complexity often arise. Plasma contains a host of contaminants which are problematic at this scale and can reduce assay sensitivity. Apostle MiniMax™ technology performs reliably across a range of volume inputs, consistently recovering high quantities of cfDNA, while effectively removing contaminants.

"Beckman Coulter Life Sciences is committed to working collaboratively with our customers to find the best technologies to meet their complex needs. We have listened to their ongoing challenges in working with cfDNA and sought to find ways to effectively combat those issues. This includes recognizing that an innovative product from a startup like Apostle is the best technology to address these needs," said Steve Wowk, Director of Genomics, Beckman Coulter Life Sciences.

"Beckman Coulter Life Sciences established global presence and commitment to life sciences makes them an ideal collaborator to provide access to our innovative nucleic acid isolation products to customers around the globe," said David Ge, President and CEO, Apostle Inc.

For more information on Apostle MiniMax™ High Efficiency Cell-Free DNA Isolation Kit, please visit our product information page.

Apostle Inc.

Apostle Inc. is a biotechnology company in Menlo Park, CA. Apostle focuses on research, development, licensing, and sales of novel technologies, and the related intellectual properties, products, and services for diagnosis and treatment of human diseases. Apostle is dedicated to fundamentally improving the accuracy and efficiency of liquid biopsy—the testing of circulating free DNA (cfDNA)—in early cancer detection or other clinical applications such as noninvasive prenatal testing (NIPT), tests for infectious diseases.

* The Advances in Genome Biology and Technology (AGBT) General Meeting is being held in Florida, USA, from February 27 to March 2, 2019