HIGH-CONTENT INFORMATION IN SERUM: Our unique data source
Magellan isolates and anazlyes the low molecular weight (LMW) fraction of serum, where we’ve found over 120K distinct peptides, lipids, small molecules, and proteolytic fragments of proteins. The contents are present as a result of cellular activities, which dynamically change due to age, disease, and future onset of disease.
As health status alters cellular processes, expression of biomolecule products changes. Our COMPASS technology was developed to detect and exploit these expression changes. The analysis of the LMW fraction of sera is technically challenging, but Magellan has licensed a sample prep and Mass Spec method that allows us to do so.

Low Molecular Weight Fraction:
>120,000 potential markers
The advantages of COMPASS:
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Considers a large number of unique species: >120,000 peptides, small molecules, and lipids
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Unlike DNA, whose information if fixed. The information analyzed by COMPASS is dynamic and reflects changing health status
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COMPASS is agnostic to biological function, allowing exploitation of biomarkers that have not been previously characterized or known to be associated with certain indications, treatments, or treatment outocomes
COMPASS Process
Discovery Process
The standard approach for discovering predictive markers usually follows these steps:
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Study the biology of the condition
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Identify one or more molecules that are critical to the process
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Develop an assay for detecting the identified molecules
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Use the assay to try to predict the desired condition
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If this did not work, restart at step 1
The above process requires significant biological skill, capabilities, time, and expense
The Magellan approach works differently:
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Identify a set of patient the exhibit the condition or may exhibit the condition in the future, as well as a set of control patients
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Extract blood, produce serum and perform Magellan's mass-spec analysis on all patients
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Using machine learning, analyze >120,000 unique species, and develop a classifier for the desired outcome
In some cases, the identity of the markers can be elucidated by further mass-spec analysis.
The Magellan method does not require an underlying understanding of the biology, is target agnostic, and is faster, less expensive than traditional approaches.