For patients with blood cancers, timely and accurate diagnosis can be critical to managing their disease. Liquid biopsy offers a minimally invasive way to obtain clinically relevant information from blood or other body fluids, such as the presence of a tumor or how the patient is responding to treatment.

As the use of liquid biopsy continues to expand, so does the need for clinical assays, robust standards and validated approaches. Addressing these challenges is at the heart of BLOODPAC, the Blood Platform for Advancing Collaboration, an international initiative that brings together stakeholders to foster collaboration and coordinated strategies in the field of liquid biopsy.

The Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute (IJC) has now joined BLOODPAC as the first Spanish institution to become part of the consortium. The Institute will collaborate with leading academic and industry partners and regulatory agencies, such as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), to advance liquid biopsy research and develop standards and validation protocols.

As a BLOODPAC member, the Josep Carreras Institute will have access to its infrastructure and resources, including the BLOODPAC Portal, a comprehensive repository for liquid biopsy publications, highlighting and providing insight into the depth and impact of work being done across its member organizations and the broader community.

IJC researchers will actively participate in the BLOODPAC consortium and contribute their expertise through its working groups, in areas such as multi-omics AI, global regulation, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and clonal hematopoiesis. The Josep Carreras Institute’s goal is to put this knowledge at the service of the Catalan and Spanish health systems, so it translates into improved outcomes for patients and lower costs and greater sustainability for the public healthcare system.

Led by Prof. Ari Melnick, the Josep Carreras Institute builds multiple international collaborations, aimed at bringing together and coordinating efforts towards its mission of curing blood cancers. For IJC, liquid biopsy is a valuable tool in the fight against hematological malignancies and believes that alliances such as BLOODPAC can help accelerate its development and translation into clinical practice:

“At the Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute, our mission is to cure blood cancers. Patients and families who place their trust in us do so knowing that we work every day to save lives like those of their loved ones. Joining BLOODPAC is an important step towards this mission, as it allows us to bring international standards and expertise in liquid biopsy directly into our research.”

Prof. Ari Melnick, Director of the Josep Carreras Institute.