Amplifyer Bio, an MIT and Broad Institute spinout developing agents designed to increase the amount of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) recoverable from blood, reported preclinical data showing that a humanized DNA-binding antibody achieved up to a 100-fold increase in ctDNA recovery in tumor-bearing mice.
The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company presented the findings at the 2026 ctDNA International Symposium following the design and screening of 74 humanized DNA-binding monoclonal antibodies. Multiple candidates produced greater than 20-fold increases in ctDNA recovery two hours after administration, while one candidate achieved an increase of up to 100-fold, according to Amplifyer.
The new candidates build on liquid-biopsy research originating in the laboratories of Sangeeta Bhatia and J. Christopher Love at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Viktor Adalsteinsson at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. Bhatia, Love, and Adalsteinsson are co-founders of Amplifyer, and the company was spun out of MIT and the Broad Institute to develop the priming-agent technology.
The underlying approach seeks to address a biological limitation of liquid biopsy testing: ctDNA released by tumors can occur at very low concentrations and is rapidly cleared from circulation. Administering a DNA-binding priming agent before blood collection can transiently slow that clearance, increasing the amount of cell-free DNA (cfDNA), including tumor-derived DNA, available for analysis.
Earlier academic work from the MIT and Broad teams demonstrated the priming concept using a monoclonal antibody, establishing that cfDNA clearance could be transiently reduced to improve recovery of tumor DNA. More recent work from the researchers, posted as a bioRxiv preprint in January 2026, investigated the molecular determinants of antibody-mediated priming.
That study was led by researchers including Shervin Tabrizi, Claire Sullivan, Kasturi Chakraborty, and Amplifyer founding scientist Carmen Martin-Alonso, with Bhatia, Adalsteinsson, and Love among the senior authors. The work involved the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT and the Broad Institute, alongside researchers affiliated with Mass General Brigham, Harvard Medical School, the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, the University of Pennsylvania, and other institutions.
The researchers found that antibodies targeting double-stranded DNA and mononucleosomes could increase ctDNA concentrations, with high avidity for double-stranded DNA associated with stronger priming activity. The Fc antibody domain was not required for the effect, while engineered non-immunoglobulin DNA-binding agents also demonstrated priming activity, suggesting that the mechanism could potentially support multiple molecular designs.
The earlier January study did not, however, report the same humanized-candidate dataset disclosed by Amplifyer in September. The company described the latest results as the first demonstration of one of its humanized priming agents increasing ctDNA recovery in vivo and said the effect sizes exceeded those obtained with the earlier academic antibody.