Eurofins Viracor and Cornell University Sign Exclusive Licensing Agreement to Expand Access to Ground-Breaking Technologies for Assessing Organ and Tissue Damage in Transplant and COVID-19 Patients

Blood and urine-based cell-free DNA detection methods will provide healthcare practitioners with highly accurate, non-invasive tools to identify and monitor for infection, rejection, and severity of organ damage in transplant and COVID-19 patients

LEE'S SUMMIT, Mo., March 17, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Eurofins Viracor, LLC, a leader in testing for infectious disease, immunology, and allergy, announced today that it has entered into an exclusive license agreement with Cornell University to commercialize several ground-breaking and novel assays aimed at transforming the clinical management of COVID-19 and transplant patients impacted from tissue damage and infections.

Surgical biopsy is critical in tracking damage of COVID-19 in the body, but the procedure can be painful and costly to the patient. The Cornell University team, led by Dr. Iwijn De Vlaminck, an associate professor at the Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering, has developed an alternative to biopsy – a novel, noninvasive blood test to measure organ injury from COVID-19. The test uses circulating cell-free DNA (cfDNA) to gauge the damage that COVID-19 inflicts on cells, tissues and organs.

Additionally, cfDNA is a highly versatile analyte for monitoring the most critical complications of hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) for many blood disorders and cancers, including Graft-Versus-Host Disease, infection, graft failure and disease relapse. The agreement between Eurofins Viracor and Cornell University will expand access to an innovative blood-based cfDNA methylation sequencing assay for early detection or prediction of major complications related to allogeneic HCT, thus improving the care of stem cell transplant patients.

In another application, Eurofins Viracor intends to commercialize the novel cfDNA test used to identify the presence of urinary tract infections in kidney transplant patients and quantify the degree of damage to the kidney and bladder.

With the combined strength of Eurofins Viracor and its affiliated companies Transplant Genomics, Inc. and Eurofins Donor & Product Testing, Inc. and their innovative transplant testing portfolios, the strategic partnership with Cornell University marks another critical step in the mission of the Eurofins US Transplant Diagnostics companies to address unmet needs across the continuum of transplant patient care.

About Viracor

With over 30 years of specialized expertise in infectious disease, immunology and allergy testing for immunocompromised and critical patients, Eurofins Viracor, LLC is committed to helping medical professionals, transplant teams and reference laboratories get results faster, when it matters most.  Eurofins Viracor is passionate about delivering value to its clients by providing timely, actionable information, never losing sight of the connection between the testing it performs and the patients it ultimately serves.  Eurofins Viracor is a subsidiary of Eurofins Scientific SE (EUFI.PA), the global leader in bio-analytical testing, and one of the world leaders in genomic services. For more information, please visit https://www.viracor-eurofins.com/.

About Eurofins - the global leader in bio-analysis

Eurofins Scientific, through its subsidiaries (hereinafter collectively "Eurofins" or "the Group"), believes it is the global leader in food, environmental, pharmaceutical and cosmetics products testing and in agroscience CRO services. It is also one of the global independent market leaders in certain testing and laboratory services for genomics, discovery pharmacology, forensics, CDMO, advanced material sciences and in the support of clinical studies. In addition, Eurofins is one of the leading global emerging players in esoteric and molecular clinical diagnostic testing. With over 47,000 staff across a network of more than 900 independent companies in over 50 countries generally specialised by end client markets and operating more than 800 laboratories, Eurofins offers a portfolio of over 200,000 analytical methods to evaluate the safety, identity, composition, authenticity, origin, traceability and purity of a wide range of products, as well as providing innovative clinical diagnostic testing services. The Group's objective is to provide customers with high-quality and innovative services, accurate results on time and, when requested, expert advice by its highly-qualified staff.

Eurofins is committed to pursuing its dynamic growth strategy by expanding both its technology portfolio and its geographic reach. Through R&D and acquisitions, the Group draws on the latest developments in the field of biotechnology and analytical chemistry to offer its clients unique analytical solutions and a very large range of testing methods.

As one of the most innovative and quality-oriented international groups in its industry, Eurofins is ideally positioned to support its clients' increasingly stringent quality and safety standards and the increasing demands of regulatory authorities and healthcare practitioners around the world.

Shares in Eurofins Scientific are listed on the Euronext Paris Stock Exchange (ISIN FR0000038259, Reuters EUFI.PA, Bloomberg ERF FP).

1. Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network
2. National Kidney Foundation

SOURCE Eurofins Viracor, LLC