We are pleased to announce that the results of our collaborative research conducted as Japan Science and Technology Agency’s grant project (JST START: Nov2020-Mar2022), aimed at founding Cosomil, have been published in ‘Cell Reports Methods’. This research, a joint effort by the University of Tokyo, RIKEN, and Nippon Medical School, focused on the development of a platform for the semi-automated synthesis of fluorogenic substrate probes and a methodology for analyzing the activity of various blood proteolytic enzymes at the single-molecule level. Moreover, we have revealed abnormalities in enzyme activities such as elastase, CD13, and DPP4 in the blood plasma of patients with stage I-II pancreatic cancer.

This achievement marks a significant step forward compared to conventional protein function analysis. Unlike conventional methods that analyze enzyme activity in large groups of molecules ranging from 10⁶ to 10⁹, our method reveals the unique characteristics of each enzyme at the single-molecule level.

We are applying this knowledge to advance the societal implementation of our Single-molecule Enzyme Activity-based Liquid Biopsy technology, contributing to the early detection of diseases.

Article Information
Journal: Cell Reports Methods
Article Title: Identification of activity-based biomarkers for early-stage pancreatic tumors in blood using single-molecule enzyme activity screening
DOI：10.1016/j.crmeth.2023.100688.