Project description
Liquid biopsy platform for early characterisation of circulating tumour cells
Early cancer diagnosis enables proper treatment at the earliest possible stage. Liquid biopsy can detect cells, DNA or other cellular or extracellular components that originate from tumours and are found in the blood and other body fluids. This minimally invasive approach shows high diagnostic sensitivity and specificity with enormous potential for early diagnosis and real-time monitoring of cancer. Based on a proprietary technology, the Italian company Tethis developed an automated pre-analytical platform, to be placed at the point of blood collection, that enables comprehensive liquid biopsy in solid tumours. It facilitates a true multi-omics analysis, using all the available analytical techniques and efficiency in the logistics of sample shipment. The EU-funded TETHIS-SBS-CTC project will evaluate the technology's market potential.
Objective
Cancer is one of the most important causes of death worldwide, accounting for 8.8 million deaths. The rate of new cases is expected to rise by 70% in the next 2 decades, posing a huge challenge for the healthcare system. If diagnosed early and treated adequately, many cases would have a high chance of cure. This realization is driving the growth in the cancer diagnostics market. The detection and analysis of Circulating Tumour Cells (CTCs) encloses a huge potential for real-time monitoring of cancer cases. CTCs are considered a “diagnostic tumour marker” since they are the reflection of a metastatic aggression. We at TETHIS have developed a new diagnostic platform to characterize CTCs from liquid biopsy (i.e. blood). The combination of our expertise in nanotechnology and strong biology knowledge have led to the development of a Smart BioSurface (SBS) that creates a perfect environment to immobilize CTCs using a total capture approach. Compared to the state-of-the-art alternatives, our methodology does not require pre-enrichment or selection. Having validated this technology for cancer diagnostics at the pilot stage, this project is conceived to finalise the development and market preparation of this technology, culminating in a diagnostic platform for cellular, proteomic and molecular characterization of CTCs. The platform will have key applications, including diagnostics and monitoring in clinical settings, and drug discovery & therapy development in the pharma/biotech sectors. The Phase 1 of this project is dedicated to run a Feasibility Study that helps us evaluate the project from a technical, commercial and financial standpoint. Once the project is finished, we expect our platform to improve the diagnostic capability in the oncology sector, enabling earlier detection and better management. In turn, it will secure the growth for TETHIS, expecting to gain over €10 million in profits, hire 15 new people and reach a ROI of €2.58 from this project after 5 years.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- medical and health sciences basic medicine pharmacology and pharmacy drug discovery
- medical and health sciences health sciences public health
- social sciences sociology demography mortality
- engineering and technology nanotechnology
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine oncology
You need to log in or register to use this function
We are sorry... an unexpected error occurred during execution.
You need to be authenticated. Your session might have expired.
Thank you for your feedback. You will soon receive an email to confirm the submission. If you have selected to be notified about the reporting status, you will also be contacted when the reporting status will change.
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
-
H2020-EU.2.3. - INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs
MAIN PROGRAMME
See all projects funded under this programme -
H2020-EU.3. - PRIORITY 'Societal challenges
See all projects funded under this programme -
H2020-EU.2.1. - INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies
See all projects funded under this programme
Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1
See all projects funded under this funding scheme
Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) H2020-EIC-SMEInst-2018-2020
See all projects funded under this callCoordinator
Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
20143 Milano
Italy
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.