AQTUAL: Arthritis Drug Selection Via Assaying Cell Free Chromatin

Liquid biopsies - the idea of peering into the disease state somewhere in the body by looking at “cell-free DNA” in the blood - is quite the rage these days.  There are a host of companies and approaches, and I haven’t quite found the discipline to start trying to build a census of all of them.  The field started with Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing (NIPT), and then some early NIPT cases had odd DNA that looked like oncogenic in healthy mothers - who turned out to actually have the cancer. Oncology has been the primary focus, but there’s been many hints that liquid biopsies may be valuable in a wide range of diseases.  A bit over a week ago, Dr. Diana Abdueva founder and CEO of AQTUAL, walked me through (over Zoom) that company’s liquid biopsy approach to inflammatory disease management.