• Pneumonia is a leading cause of mortality for children worldwide, second leading cause of death in SG (19.4%)
• Current diagnostic methods cannot provide real time diagnosis of pneumonia severity and lung tissue damage
• Current kits also only rely on identifying pathogens in pneumonia patients
• There is a requirement for an accurate reflection of pneumonia severity to facilitate prompt clinical judgment and management

Market Impact

• Respiratory Disease testing market expected to reach USD 3.1 Billion globally in 2022 at a CAGR of 3.4% from 2014 - 2022 (Transparency Market Research)
• Main market is in the Americas – generating a revenue of more than USD1.5 billion by 2019. This is facilitated by initiatives under the Affordable Care Act.

Technology Description

• cANGPTL4 increases pulmonary tissue leakiness and exacerbates inflammation-induced lung damage during influenza pneumonia
• cANGPTL4 is also detectable in sufficient quantities in sputm and blood specimens, which are routinely obtained for current diagnosis
• cANGPTL4 levels in normal and pneumonia patients have been analysed to derive ranges of basal and positive values
• An enzyme immunoassay that can correlate cANGPTL4 levels in patient samples with severity of pneumonia has been successfully developed and optimised.

Development Status

• Biomarker has been validated in Western Blot and ELISA
• Manufacturing standards for the ELISA diagnostic kit has been optimized
• Currently, technology is validated on a multi-centre study in SG, Japan, France and China

Current IP position: Provisional patent application filed.

Future Progress

Upon successful in vivo demonstration of this technology’s safety and efficacy, the technology is ideally placed as a licensing opportunity to MNC / SME operating in stent manufacturing fields.

Prof Vincent Chow/ National University Health System