Portfolio company Elypta behind groundbreaking cancer research

Prof. Jens Nielsen and Dr. Francesco Gatto, founders of our portfolio company Elypta, has been published in the peer-reviewed journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) with their groundbreaking research conducted at Chalmers University of Technology showcasing the multi-cancer early detection (MCED) potential of glycosaminoglycans as biomarkers of tumor metabolism.

Researchers developed a test based on the measurement of free glycosaminoglycan profiles in plasma and urine using Elypta’s MIRAM™ kit and samples from 979 participants diagnosed with 14 different cancer types, including types difficult to detect with other methods such as brain tumors and kidney cancer, and healthy subjects. The test was successfully validated in a separate population diagnosed with cancer within 18 months after sampling.

In this screening-like study, the test detected 43% of future cancers with a lethal outcome and only 1% false positives. The test proved exceptionally sensitive to stage I cancer, doubling the detection rate reported by any genomic biomarkers validated in similar populations. The estimated testing cost was less than $50 with low sample volumes needed, underlining the potential for widespread use.