Simplifying the Analysis of Chimerism Data
SLU ID 19-006 | Rchimerism: An R-Package for Automated Chimerism Data Analysis
Intellectual Property Status
Seeking
Proprietary non-patented intellectual property
Know-how based
Copyright
Licensee
Development partner
Commercial partner
Investment
University spin out
Background
A quantitative chimerism test monitors engraftment of donor hematopoietic stem cells or relapse of leukemias or lymphomas in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) patients. The most common method used for chimerism testing is PCR amplification of short tandem repeat loci followed by capillary gel electrophoresis. Manual data analysis is tedious and time consuming, as it involves the selection of informative loci and the repetition of quantifying chimerism percentage for multiple loci from multiple cell types. It is also susceptible to human errors. Currently, there is no open source software that fully automates chimerism data analysis.
Overview
Researchers at Saint Louis University have developed an R package (Rchimerism) that automatically picks informative loci, calculates chimerism percentage, and displays the results through a user-friendly interface. Tests of the program accuracy produced 100% concordance with manual calculation.
Benefits
The potential benefits of this technology include:
Minimizing the time required to analyze chimerism data
Minimizing the tediousness of analyzing chimerism data
Minimizing errors in chimerism data analysis
Applications
Potential applications of this technology include chimerism data analysis.
Opportunity
Saint Louis University is seeking partners to further develop and commercialize this technology.