Teiko has partnered with University of Utah Health and Huntsman Cancer Institute to develop advanced immune profiling tests, beginning with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML). By using Teiko's TokuKit and advanced multiparameter assays the collaboration aims to expand access to high-precision MRD testing for community and rural healthcare settings. Additionally, University of Utah Health Innovations will join Teiko as an investor to support long-term diagnostics development across multiple disease areas.
Teiko is pleased to announce a collaboration with the University of Utah’s U of U Health and the Huntsman Cancer Institute to develop a series of breakthrough immune profiling tests, starting with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML). This first study marks the start of a broader, long-term collaboration between the two organizations, with plans to extend the work across multiple disease areas where stabilized samples and high-resolution immune profiling make a difference for patients. As part of this initiative, University of Utah Health Innovations will become an investor in Teiko.
AML is an aggressive blood cancer. Patients with measurable residual disease (MRD) after treatment roughly have a five-year overall survival rate of approximately 34%, compared with 68% for patients without detectable MRD.
Multiparameter flow cytometry is used in 60%+ of AML MRD assessments, but it must reliably identify leukemic cells present at frequencies as low as 0.01–0.1% of total cells. Guidelines recommend acquiring at least 500,000–1,000,000 CD45+ events with adequate cell viability to achieve this limit of detection.
Acquiring this amount of cells depends heavily on sample quality. With current workflows, bone marrow must be processed within 24-72 hours of collection. Even within that window, storage and transit time degrade sample quality. As a result, high-quality MRD testing is largely limited to specialized laboratories capable of rapid processing. This barrier means patients who receive care in a community or rural setting often do not have access to MRD testing. Teiko and University of Utah aim to change that.
In initial testing, Teiko's stabilization kit fixed bone marrow at the point of collection, extending the processing window from 72 hours to 90 days, thereby allowing community hospitals to ship samples to a central laboratory and for biobanking. In collaboration with the U, Teiko will be developing a high-parameter spectral flow panel on bone marrow that will measure disease burden before and after treatment.
AML is the first of several disease areas that Teiko and the University of Utah plan to pursue together to advance precision diagnostics, with more details to come as the collaboration progresses.
Learn more at teiko-labs.com/aml.
