SomaLogic, Inc. announced that it has signed an agreement with the Bristol-Myers Squibb Company to provide expanded access to its proprietary SOMAmer reagents. The agreement covers both the 1,310 reagents available in the current public version of the SOMAscan assay as well as custom SOMAmer reagents developed through SomaLogic's SOMAmer Discovery Service specifically for Bristol-Myers Squibb. Specific terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

SOMAmerA (Slow Off-rate Modified Aptamer) reagents are a new generation of protein-binding molecules that combine the best properties of antibodies and traditional aptamers. Each SOMAmerA reagent consists of a unique short single-stranded DNA sequence that incorporates several bases that have been modified to include "protein-like" side chains. These unique chemical properties confer on SOMAmer reagents both high affinity and specificity for their target proteins as well as high durability and reproducibility, making them attractive reagents for virtually every laboratory assay that currently relies on antibodies.