Project description
Novel breast cancer diagnostic test for personalised treatment
Breast cancer (BC) is the most common cancer in women worldwide, but current diagnostic tests lack precision, often leading to misdiagnosis and inaccurate treatment. The goal of the EU-funded Multiplex8+ project is the development of a personalised and precise diagnostic test for early and late-stage BC. The test combines two patented multiplexed cancer diagnostic technologies: visualisation (RNA FISH) and RNA sequencing. The combination of these technologies will help to eliminate misdiagnosis and will enable a specific BC barcode system to suggest a particular personalised treatment and estimate its length and prognostic value. The current project stage involves establishing an accredited laboratory for clinical validation followed by the creation of the first high-value biotech company in Slovakia.
Objective
Breast cancer (BCa) is the most common cancer in women worldwide with 2.1M new cases diagnosed annually, and this number is expected to double in 2030. However, today’s diagnostic tests lack precision and, as a result, many BCa patients are misdiagnosed then treated inaccurately, putting their lives at risk while creating undue problems for families and healthcare systems. MultiplexDX (a leading Slovak biotechnology company) proposes a personalized and precise diagnostic test for early and late stage BCa called Multiplex8+. The test combines two IP-protected, revolutionary and multiplexed cancer diagnostic technologies, visualization (RNA FISH) and RNA sequencing. By combining the two technologies to eliminate misdiagnosis, Multiplex8+ defines a specific BCa barcode that suggests a specific personalized treatment, length of therapy and clarifies how likely will a BCa patient benefit from chemotherapy or not.
There are 2 main objectives of this project: 1. Establish an ISO-15189 accredited laboratory to provide diagnostic services to cancer centers (B2B) and additionally to patients (B2C). A clinical validation on 4 000 tissue samples will be conducted to obtain clinically-based evidence; 2. Build the first successful high-value biotech company in Slovakia. The company has already raised €2,05M in seed investments and grants and started sales of subproducts generating €300k in revenues since 2016. MultiplexDX is operating in the Comenius University Science Park in Bratislava and consists of 17 team members, 5 business and 7 scientific advisors. Our planned accumulated revenues in the first 5 years are €305,3M, generating a net profit of €133,0M and representing a ROI of 10,3. Importantly, Multiplex8+ is supported by the entire oncology value chain (patient associations, cancer centers, hospitals, KOLs, insurance companies, pharma/medtech, clinical laboratories, biobanks, investors, etc.).
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Funding Scheme
SME-2 - SME instrument phase 2Coordinator
841 04 Bratislava
Slovakia
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.