Custom panel development for multiple sclerosis using the Olink platform

“Biomarker discovery & custom panel development for multiple sclerosis disease assessments utilizing the Olink platform”

Speaker: Ferhan Qureshi, Vice President – Biomarker Product Development, Octave Bioscience

The current standard of care for Multiple Sclerosis patients relies heavily on assessments that are subjective, qualitative, and inadequate. Octave Bioscience has developed an integrated Care Platform that consists of several tools to improve measurement capabilities in MS including (1) Enhanced MRI readings and interpretation, (2) Mobile applications, sensors, and wearables to track shifts and changes in symptoms, and (3) A custom assay panel performed using the Olink Platform to quantitatively assess the level of disease activity in blood samples.

The development of this panel involved biomarker discovery efforts for which over 1000 proteins were screened in several deeply phenotyped studies and associated with clinical and radiographic endpoints. A dynamic and iterative process that balanced statistical, analytical, and biological factors was then used to select proteins for inclusion in the custom panel. The 21-plex panel has been manufactured and analytically validated in preparation for a forthcoming clinical validation in independent cohorts. The subject of this webinar was to review the research, development, and validation of the custom assay panel.