Descripción del proyecto
Una nueva prueba diagnóstica para el lupus
El lupus es una enfermedad autoinmunitaria que afecta a millones de personas en todo el mundo. Su diagnóstico suele retrasarse debido a que no hay una herramienta de diagnóstico específica y la mayoría de los síntomas se parecen a los de otras enfermedades autoinmunitarias. Para abordar este problema, el proyecto financiado con fondos europeos ClarifyLupus ha desarrollado una herramienta novedosa para el diagnóstico del lupus. Al contrario que los anticuerpos, que son altamente inespecíficos entre las enfermedades que se confunden con el lupus, ClarifyLupus emplea un biomarcador específico del lupus cuya eficacia ha sido validada en muestras de sangre. Se espera que esta herramienta de diagnóstico facilite el diagnóstico temprano y ayude a evitar los daños irreversibles de esta devastadora enfermedad.
Objetivo
The difficulty on diagnosing lupus is due not only to the occurrence of overlapping symptoms with other autoimmune diseases but also to the unavailability of a lab test to confirm or rule out Lupus.
The autoimmune disease is devastating, and the later it is diagnosed, the worse are the irreversible damages to the patients. In the USA alone, there are 13.8M people with Lupus and overlapping diseases and 2,6M new cases of these diseases are diagnosed each year. These diseases affect more than 25M people in the EU.
We have developed a technology capable of identifying and quantifying altered proteins that play a key role in the onset of Lupus. Our product ClarifyLupus is a diagnostic test that is effective since the early stages of the disease.
Although our competitors are conducting research on Lupus biomarker discovery, they all are focused in autoantibodies biomarker discovery that are highly unspecific among Lupus-confounding diseases. In contrast we have a Lupus-specific biomarker that enables the Lupus diagnosis much earlier than our competitors.
We have passed the proof-of-concept stage where our diagnosis methodology was tested in blood samples and in January 2018 we have secured the Portuguese ethical committee approval to perform clinical assays, and are recruiting 50 patients until the end of the year.
In April 2018 we secured a Letter of Support from the Egas Moniz Hospital in Lisbon, stating the importance and market disruption of ClarifyLupus.
Clarify Analytical was founded in 2017 by Alexandra Antunes and João Rodrigues, two expert technologists in the fields of toxicology and mass spectroscopy, supported by 3 team members. The start-up was selected for the prestigious CoHiTech acceleration program in Portugal, focused on business and technology go-to-market. ClarifyLupus will be the breakthrough for Lupus diagnosis which will allow Lupus patients to be treated earlier, extending their lives by decades and improving their quality.
Ámbito científico
Programa(s)
Convocatoria de propuestas
Consulte otros proyectos de esta convocatoriaConvocatoria de subcontratación
H2020-SMEInst-2018-2020-1
Régimen de financiación
SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1Coordinador
7000-872 EVORA
Portugal
Organización definida por ella misma como pequeña y mediana empresa (pyme) en el momento de la firma del acuerdo de subvención.