New blood test predicts flares before they happen

Ampel Biosolutions announced the launch of LuGENE®, a blood test that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to look at a patient’s gene activity and predict when lupus flares are likely to happen and which medications could be most effective to keep symptoms in check.

The blood test predicts flares before they happen and provides specific information about a patient's disease abnormalities leading to symptoms, allowing physicians to make evidence-based decisions regarding therapy including whether a patient is stable on their current therapeutic regimen. 

Using a small sample from a blood draw, LuGENE® yields results within seven to 10 days, according to the company.

“Currently, there is no way to predict flares or determine which treatment is most appropriate for each patient, and in many instances it can take many years for some patients to find the most effective one to manage their disease,” said Peter Lipsky, MD, Ampel’s co-founder, CEO, and chief medical officer.

“The LuGENE® blood test is incredibly exciting as it represents an important advance towards achieving personalized medicine for Lupus patients by using novel technology of explainable predictive AI and analytics that group all known gene expression by drug target,” Dr CIndy Aranow, Feinstein Institute at Northwell Health.

The LuGENE® lab test is only currently available at study sites across the US to help researchers compare data obtained with the LuGENE Blood Test vs. Standard Laboratory Feature of people with lupus.