Mursla Bio has announced a collaboration with a "leading global pharmaceutical company" recognised for its expertise in precision medicine and biomarker-guided drug development.
Under the collaboration, Mursla Bio’s AI Precision Medicine Platform will generate hepatocyte-specific extracellular vesicle (h-EV) profiles from blood samples collected from a well-characterised cohort of patients with metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH) and matched healthy controls.
MASH is an advanced stage of fatty liver disease, strongly associated with the global rise in obesity and type 2 diabetes.
MASH affects five to seven per cent of the world’s adult population, with more than 75% of those classed as overweight, obese and living with type 2 diabetes.
It is characterised by the build-up of excess fat in the liver, which causes inflammation and cell damage.
MASH can progress to irreversible scarring (cirrhosis) and, in some cases, lead to liver failure or liver cancer.
The collaboration will explore mode-of-action (MoA)-related biomarkers and evaluate biomarker panels to identify patients most likely to benefit from the pharmaceutical company’s investigational therapy.
The initial phase will focus on generating insights into liver tissue biology in MASH by building tissue-labelled, high-dimensional mRNA and protein datasets from h-EVs in blood.
This data will help define MoA-related pathways and patient stratification signatures, while strengthening Mursla Bio’s AI liver disease models developed through its MEV01 clinical study and extending their applicability across future programmes.
Complementing Mursla Bio’s lead product, EvoLiver, developed for liver cancer surveillance among cirrhotic patients, the partnership broadens the clinical and translational reach of its clinically validated platform across metabolic liver diseases.
The same infrastructure that enabled EvoLiver to achieve FDA Breakthrough Device Designation will be used to accelerate the translation of exploratory biomarkers into regulatory-grade companion diagnostics.
Pierre Arsène, founder and CEO of Mursla Bio, said: “This collaboration reflects the growing demand from global pharmaceutical leaders for our AI Precision Medicine Platform."
"As the GLP-1 revolution reshapes obesity management, MASH is rapidly emerging as the next major therapeutic focus and the need for precise liver-specific biomarkers has never been greater."
"By profiling intact hepatocyte biology protected within the cargo of h-EVs, we are enabling a new generation of biomarker-guided precision medicine in liver care. This partnership deepens our reach in hepatology, expanding on the foundation established with EvoLiver.”