About Us
InLighta BioSciences L.L.C. was formed in 2014 by Dr. Jenny J. Yang, to develop patented protein-based contrast agents for pre-clinical and clinical imaging applications.
Our precision Magnetic Resonance Imaging (pMRI) technology addresses current deficiencies in medical diagnostics for early detection, monitoring disease progression, image-guided intervention, and evaluating drug delivery and therapeutic treatment.
Protein-based Contrast Agents (ProCAs) combined with pMRI technologies, provide significantly improved sensitivity and accuracy for assessing a broad range of diseases including cancers and fibrosis, and effective molecular MR imaging of multiple biomarkers for breast, lung, ovarian, prostate cancer and liver metastases from uveal melanoma, breast and ovarian cancer.
Our Products/Services
MRI Contrast Agents
InLighta is currently developing high-contrast agents for MR imaging. The ProCA series of contrast agents includes both blood pool agents and targeted contrast agents for specific biomarkers.
The ProCA series
- ProCA’s are Protein-based Contrast Agents comprised of altered human protein scaffolds with engineered metal-chelating sites.
- ProCA’s can be utilized as blood-pool agents, or combined with targeting moieties for localized delivery via intravenous injection.
- ProCAs exhibit 10^14-10^16 fold increases in metal selectivity (kinetic stability) for Gd(III) over physiological metal ions (calcium, magnesium and zinc) compared with all other approved agents.
- During imaging, ProCAs exhibit high relaxivities for both r1 and r2, resulting in a dual imaging methodology for the detection of primary lesions and early-stage metastases (0.1 -0.2 mm).
- Blood Pool Agents
- ProCA32: Allows for imaging liver tumors that measure less than 0.25 millimeters. The agent is more than 40 times more sensitive than today’s commonly used and clinically-approved agents used to detect tumors in the liver. In addition to contrast specificity within the liver, ProCA32 provides full-body contrast as a blood pool agent. ProCA32 is currently available for non-clinical laboratory use.
- Targeted Contrast Agents
- ProCA32.Collagen: Binds to collagen associated with liver fibrosis.
- ProCA32.CXCR4: Binds receptor CXCR4 expressed during metastasis of uveal melanoma in animal models.