nELISA — nano Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay
Nomic's nELISA is a direct sandwich immunoassay using dual-barcoded antibody pairs and flow cytometry readout — no proximity extension, no PCR amplification, no next-generation sequencing. Results are in absolute physical units (pg/mL), not relative log-scale scores.
nELISA vs Olink PEA vs SomaScan
The large-scale proteomics market is dominated by Olink's proximity extension assay (PEA) and SomaLogic's aptamer array. nELISA occupies a distinct position: direct antibody-based detection, absolute quantification, minimally invasive sample compatibility, and a cost structure that makes consumer-scale throughput viable.
| Attribute | Nomic Omni 1000 nELISA |
Olink Explore 3072 Proximity Extension Assay |
SomaScan v4.1 Aptamer array |
|---|---|---|---|
| Proteins per sample | ~1,000 | 3,072 | 7,596 |
| Quantification unitsabsolute vs relative | Absolute (pg/mL) | Relative (NPX log-scale) | Relative (RFU) |
| Cost per sampleindicative | ~$50 | $200–$600+ | $400–$800+ |
| Sensitivity (LOD) | ~0.1 pg/mL | ~1–10 pg/mL | ~1–100 pg/mL |
| Detection chemistry | ✓ Dual-antibody sandwich | ✓ Proximity extension + PCR | ✗ Aptamer (off-target binding risk) |
| Batch-free longitudinal comparisons | ✓ Embedded calibration curves | Requires bridging normalisation | Requires bridging normalisation |
| Minimally invasive sampleVAMS / DPS validated | ✓ Validated | Venipuncture preferred | Venipuncture required |
| Capital equipment | None — service-lab model | Olink Insight instrument | SomaLogic facility only |
| Commercial throughputsamples processed | 950,000+ (150+ institutions) | UKB-PPP (54K); research scale | Limited; primarily academic |
| Concordance vs Olinkpublished r | >0.95 (median) | — | ~0.70–0.80 |
Minimally invasive, decentralised collection
Nomic Omni 1000 is validated for dried blood microsamples — removing the venipuncture requirement that confines most large-scale proteomics platforms to clinic settings. This is the enabling technology for SYN-WAVE's direct-to-consumer collection model.
From proteomic profiles to interpretable health scores
Synoptic's analytical stack converts ~1,000-protein expression matrices into product-ready scores — trained on population-scale cohort reference data and validated against gold-standard clinical endpoints.
Organ-system biological age scores are derived by training regularised regression models (elastic net, gradient boosting) on proteomic age residuals — the deviation of each protein from its age-expected level — separately for each organ system. Architecture mirrors Oh et al., Nature 2023.
- 11 organ systems scored independently (heart, adipose, liver, kidney, lung, brain, immune, musculoskeletal, endocrine, gut, vasculature)
- Cross-validated against incident disease endpoints: CVD, CKD, liver disease, neurodegenerative markers
- Exposome modules: lifestyle, dietary, environmental, and metabolic modifiers of proteomic age
- Longitudinal drift detection for repeat-sample monitoring; change scores over time
- Consumer report output: organ scores, percentile benchmarks, actionable lifestyle flags
Disease-specific proteomic panels are identified from EPIC incidence data and integrated with polygenic risk scores (PRS) to produce multi-disease risk estimates. Architecture mirrors Carrasco-Zanini et al., Nature Medicine 2024.
- PRS + proteomic biomarker interaction modelling; protein panels of 5–20 proteins per disease
- Disease targets: T2D, CVD, CKD, dementia, selected cancers — curated by incidence power in EPIC
- Bayesian posterior risk estimates with calibrated confidence intervals
- Clinician-facing report: ICD-10 aligned, risk strata with actionable intervention thresholds
- Patient-facing DTC variant with structured GP handoff pathway
CLIA/CAP-accredited processing pathway
Clinical-grade reporting requires certified laboratory infrastructure throughout the sample custody chain. Synoptic's two-lab model routes pre-analytical processing through a CLIA/CAP partner and measurement through Nomic's certified service lab.
Samples collected via VAMS or DPS are shipped to Biological Clinical Laboratories (BCL), Synoptic's designated CLIA/CAP partner for pre-analytical processing. BCL handles elution, quality control, and sample preparation before transferring eluates to Nomic for nELISA measurement.
This two-lab model separates pre-analytical sample custody from measurement — the standard architecture for multi-site clinical studies and laboratory developed test (LDT) pipelines. It enables Synoptic to add or switch measurement labs as throughput scales without re-validating consumer-facing collection protocols or BCL's CLIA certification.
SYN-WAVE's DTC reporting pathway operates under a wellness-use framing that does not require FDA clearance. SYN-DROME's clinical diagnostic reporting will require additional LDT validation studies under the FDA LDT framework — planned for Year 3–4 alongside regulatory pre-submission meetings.