Nuprobe

About Nuprobe

NuProbe operates within the genomics and molecular diagnostics sector, focusing on the development of ultrasensitive testing technologies for early disease detection, particularly in oncology and reproductive health. The company was founded in 2016 and possesses facilities in Houston, Texas, as well as in Shanghai and Suzhou, China. Its establishment stemmed from technology licensed from Harvard University's Wyss Institute and Rice University. A significant milestone occurred in early 2020 when NuProbe merged with CarrierGene Biotech, a Chinese company specializing in infertility gene testing. This merger integrated CarrierGene's commercial strength in the Chinese reproductive health market with NuProbe's proprietary technologies.

The company's founding team includes individuals with deep expertise in academia and the genomics industry. Co-founder David Yu Zhang, formerly a professor at Rice University, is an inventor of many of the company's core technologies. Peng Yin, a Professor of Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School and a leading expert in DNA nanotechnology, is also a co-founder and inventor of NuProbe's technologies. Yingshuang Chai, the co-founder and former CEO of CarrierGene, took the helm as CEO of the merged entity, bringing extensive commercial experience from leadership roles at Thermo Fisher and Life Technologies in China. The scientific advisory board includes prominent figures like David R. Walt, the scientific founder of Illumina, and George Church, a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School.

NuProbe's business model revolves around providing its proprietary technologies through several avenues. It develops and sells research-use-only (RUO) genomics panels and assays to clinical and research laboratories. The company also engages in partnerships with pharmaceutical companies for clinical research and biomarker detection programs. A key part of its strategy involves licensing its technology to major diagnostics companies; a notable agreement was made with Bio-Rad for the development of multiplexed digital PCR assays. Revenue is generated from the sale of these products, custom assay development services, and licensing agreements.

The company's core technological offerings are designed to dramatically increase the sensitivity of detecting rare genetic mutations from samples like liquid biopsies (blood) and FFPE tissue. Key technologies include Blocker Displacement Amplification (BDA) and Quantitative Amplicon Sequencing (QASeq). BDA is a PCR-based method that enriches variant DNA alleles by over 1000-fold, enabling the detection of mutations at very low frequencies (down to 0.01% variant allele frequency) with significantly reduced sequencing depth and cost. This makes ultrasensitive liquid biopsy feasible on common benchtop sequencers. Products based on this technology include the VarMap™ Pan-Cancer NGS Panel, which detects thousands of mutations across dozens of clinically relevant genes. These technologies are applied across oncology for therapy selection and monitoring, as well as in reproductive health, where the company is a leader in infertility testing in China.