Olink announces first core lab running the Olink Explore platform in Europe, making it available for more researchers

UPPSALA, Sweden, May 04, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Olink Holding AB (publ) (Nasdaq: OLK) today announced that its Olink Explore 1536/384 platform is now available to researchers in Europe through the SciLifeLab National Genomics Infrastructure (NGI) and the Affinity Proteomics Uppsala unit at SciLifeLab Clinical and Immunological platform (APU) by their combined capability SciLifeLab Explore lab.

This is the first core lab in Europe certified to offer the Olink Explore platform, comprising four protein biomarker panels for cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, oncology, neurology and inflammation. The platform enables researchers to define protein signatures that provide meaningful insights into human biology and dynamic changes in health and disease.

Through the launch of Olink Explore 1536 as kits earlier this year, laboratories are now able to set up the Olink Explore platform, providing additional analysis capacity to researchers.

“This will further democratize the use of Olink in line with our mission to accelerate proteomics together with the scientific community. The objective is to create a better understanding of the origin of the disease, provide earlier and more accurate diagnoses with individualized treatment and enable more efficient and safer drug development. The SciLifeLab laboratory in Uppsala is our first EMEA laboratory to adopt Olink Explore, demonstrating the importance of academic partners in pioneering the establishment of new technologies. We are proud to be their selected partner,” says Jon Heimer, CEO of Olink.

By combining Olink’s patented proximity extension assay (PEA) technology with a high-throughput next generation sequencing (NGS) readout on Illumina NovaSeq and NextSeq instruments, close to 1,500 protein biomarker targets can be measured simultaneously in only a few microliters of biological sample, providing clinically relevant, actionable insights. This year, Olink plans to increase the library to approximately 3,000 protein biomarker targets.

The PEA technology is based on two matching antibodies binding to the target protein. When the complementary DNA tags from the two antibodies come into close proximity, the tags hybridize and are extended making a unique DNA barcode for each analyzed protein. After amplification, digital DNA counting is performed using NGS and the resulting counts represent the concentration of the protein in the sample.