EPIDISEASE

• Epidisease provides innovative and specialised services in epigenetics for the development of health products for “in vitro” diagnosis (search for epigenetic biomarkers and diagnostic/prognosis kits), the design of new epigenetic drugs and the identification of epigenetic targets associated with pathological processes.
• For epigenetic studies, Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technologies are used, as well as propietary protocols for the isolation and purification of histones or microRNAs, offering our clients our experience in interpreting and validating the results.
• Activity:
  • Next Generation Sequencing:  smallRNA-seq, Whole Genome Bisulfite Sequencing, ChIP-seq.
  • Services and Research support.
  • Discovery and validation of epigenetic biomarkers (microRNAs, DNA methylation, post-translational histone modifications, study of histone variants, etc.)
  • Characterisation and evaluation of epigenetic assets through “In vitro“ studies.
  • Bio-informatics and Bio-statistics specialising in epigenetic studies.

INNOVATIVE ASPECTS

• Epidisease has initiated a clinical validation project for a patented diagnostic and prognostic kit for idiopathic scoliosis (idiopathic scolisis, AIS) by analysing miRNA biomarkers.  Epidisease S.L is developing a simple kit that contains all the necessary reagents to detect the bio-markers associated with AIS, the "Epidis-AIS prognostic kit".
• The Epidisease team has extensive experience in the development and Implementation of national and international R&D projects, and large research consortiums.  The idea of the Epidisease team is to develop their own R+D + I in collaboration with Public Research Organisations and private companies, in order to remain at the forefront of technology and international innovation.

COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES

• Epidisease´s main competitive advantage is its unique epigenomic analysis technology, based on the expertise and knowledge acquired in the research by the team during years of research.  The company members are the authors of a large number of scientific works focused on epigenetics, the identification of biomarkers and the preclinical treatment of different diseases.
• In addition, it has excellent "partners" to assist it in achieving its objectives.  Its partners in the public sector offer them a privileged position over other competitors in terms of the priority use of their technology platforms.  Epidisease in the first "Spin off" of CIBER, which brings together 239 research groups linked to 92 different research centres. Epidisease also has the support of the Research Foundation of the University Clinical Hospital of the Valencian Community (INCIVA Health Research Institute) and the University of Valencia

• Epigenetics is the discipline that studies those changes in the expression of genes that do not depend on changes in the genetic sequence.  Since they are not mutations but rather chemical modifications, epigenetics offers the possibility of reprogramming the genome without the need to modify the genetic material, since it is possible to regulate it, or modify it, by pharmacological means, which increases the interest on the part of the pharmaceutical industry to find drugs that can regulate these epigenetic mechanisms.
• In addition, thanks to the fact that epigenetic modifications are adjustable, they are excellent candidates to act as bio-markers in the  diagnosis and prognosis of diseases.
• Epidisease has several kits in the pipeline in different phases of development for diagnosis, prognosis and monitoring of the evaluation of different diseases:
  • Scoli-Pro (R). First diagnostic kit and epigenetic prognosis of Idiopathic Scoliosis, based on a signature of circulating plasma microRNAs.
  • EpiAging. First kit based on the identification of microRNA regulators of genes of the 9 molecular brands of aging.

• Epidisease directs its activity to the search for new biomarkers in different rare diseases, cancer, cardiovascular diseases, metabolic diseases, markers of healthy aging;  to find markers that show how the environment, diet or drugs affect gene expression. For this reason, Epidisease provides support and assistance to research groups, both basic and clinical, in the field of epigenetics.
• It also offers support to the pharmaceutical industry in the characterisation of new epigenetic drugs under development, mainly in the analysis of HDACs inhibitors and DNMTs.
• It also assists bio-technology companies that want to evaluate new specific antibodies against post-translational histone modifications (WB, ChIP, immunofluorescence).