Nashville-based NuSirt Biopharma, which is focused on improving the lives of those with chronic metabolic diseases, and One Way Liver S.L. (OWL Metabolomics), a leader in the field of metabolomics and liver diseases diagnostics based in Spain, recently announced they have initiated a strategic partnership to develop novel diagnostic tools for ongoing drug evaluation trials for NuSirt's fatty liver drug research candidate, NS-0200.

Through their research collaboration, NuSirt and OWL will evaluate drug-induced lipidomic changes in human trials for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and explore the potential of developing a unique liquid-biopsy companion diagnostic (CDx) for NS-0200.

"Millions of people have NAFLD/NASH, but there are few medical therapies available to treat them," said Joe C. Cook, Jr., executive chairman and president of NuSirt Biopharma. "OWL is a leader in diagnostics for liver diseases, and we are delighted to partner with its team to not only investigate our own potential new treatment but also examine how molecular diagnostics could broadly advance the diagnosis, treatment and monitoring of these diseases."

NuSirt has completed enrollment for their Phase 2 TRIPLN clinical trial designed to determine the effects of its patented drug technology on patients diagnosed with NAFLD/NASH. In addition to MRI-based diagnosis known as PDFF, serial patient liquid biopsy samples from trial participants will be further analyzed via OWL Metabolomics' lipidomic signature analysis at pre-determined time intervals.