SAN ANTONIO, July 25: bioAffinity Technologies, Inc., a biotechnology company advancing early-stage cancer diagnostics and targeted therapeutics, announced a collaboration with Pictor, Inc., a targeted proteomic platform company, to support development and commercialization of bioAffinity Technologies' next-generation diagnostic tests designed to provide a more complete picture of lung inflammation in patients with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
The agreement will integrate bioAffinity's expertise in flow cytometry with Pictor's targeted proteomic analysis platform to analyze immune cell populations and cytokine profiles associated with airway inflammation.
“Pictor's targeted proteomic platform has the ability to lower our operating costs compared with traditional single-analyte testing by improving laboratory efficiency and reducing testing complexity, all of which is required to serve a large and growing market like that of asthma and COPD,” said Maria Zannes, President and CEO of bioAffinity Technologies. “We look forward to taking advantage of Pictor's expertise in proteomics and product development, and their team's experience in optimizing laboratory-friendly workflows to facilitate high throughput testing.”
bioAffinity has multiple patents pending for its inventions related to its asthma and COPD testing platform and will own the intellectual property associated with the tests that may emanate from the collaboration. Pictor retains its existing intellectual property and will own new inventions related to its targeted proteomic platform technology.
The tests under development build on bioAffinity's proprietary approach to interrogating the lung microenvironment through sputum analysis, the same scientific platform that powers CyPath® Lung, the Company's commercially available noninvasive test that helps physicians assess the likelihood that a pulmonary nodule is malignant. The Company anticipates that the tests under development will initially be offered as Laboratory Developed Tests under the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments .
“Asthma and COPD are not single diseases. They encompass multiple inflammatory pathways that require different therapeutic approaches,” said Gordon Downie, MD, PhD, bioAffinity's Chief Medical Officer. “By measuring immune cell populations using flow cytometry and integrating Pictor's cytokine profiling platform into its test protocol, our new diagnostics are designed to advance precision medicine in asthma and COPD by providing physicians with a more complete understanding of the biological processes driving airway inflammation in real time.”
bioAffinity Technologies' flow cytometry platform differentiates and quantifies immune cell populations in sputum while Pictor's proteomic platform rapidly analyzes the inflammatory proteins, or cytokines, produced by those immune cells. The anticipated result is a high-throughput laboratory test for bioAffinity Technologies that is intended to help physicians identify the inflammatory pathways driving an individual patient's disease and support more informed decisions when considering advanced therapies, including FDA-approved biologics and emerging targeted treatments.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, asthma and COPD affect more than 40 million Americans and more than 650 million people worldwide, representing a significant potential market for precision diagnostic tools that provide deeper insights into each patient's disease and help advance personalized treatment. The global asthma and COPD therapeutics market was valued at approximately $92 billion in 2024 and is projected to exceed $108 billion in 2026 and $155 billion by 2030, driven by increasing use of targeted therapies and biologics.
Pictor, Inc. is led by CEO and Managing Director Jamie Platt, PhD, a recognized diagnostics executive who joined bioAffinity Technologies' Board of Directors in 2023. Prior to her work with Pictor, Dr. Platt helped lead two successful diagnostic company acquisitions valued collectively at nearly $1 billion. Since opening its U.S. headquarters in 2025, Pictor has expanded adoption of its targeted proteomic platform through strategic partnerships across pharmaceutical, laboratory, and research markets.
“We're excited to partner with bioAffinity Technologies as they continue to develop innovative, non-invasive tests for lung disease,” said Dr. Jamie Platt, CEO of Pictor. “By combining bioAffinity's expertise in immune cell biology with Pictor's scalable proteomic platform, we can advance bioAffinity's ability to provide insights that move beyond simply identifying disease to understanding the underlying biology of each patient's condition, leading to more effective treatments.”
Cytokines are small proteins produced by immune and other cells that bind to specific cell receptors to regulate immune responses, inflammation and cell growth. Different patterns of cytokines are associated with different types of asthma and COPD, and many FDA-approved biologic therapies are designed to target specific cytokines or their cellular receptors.
