10085871Revolutionising breast cancer prognosis with OncoSignatur: an innovative, cost-effective qPCR profiling test for improved, personalised patient pathways.ClosedCollaborative R&DInnovate UKSignatur Biosciences is a UK-based medical device SME founded by Celestin de Wergifosse (CEO), Dr John Goertz (CSO), and Professor Molly Stevens (Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board) aiming to revolutionise the breast cancer diagnostics landscape. Approximately 55M women are diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer annually in the UK. After surgery to remove the tumour, over two-thirds of patients can safely forgo chemotherapy, avoiding potentially severe complications and significant costs to the healthcare system. Lab tests can guide this decision by telling whether a patient is in the high-risk or low-risk of relapse category, but the most commonly used test today costs nearly £3K and takes up to three weeks for results (as it can only be run in a centralised facility). Signatur Biosciences is developing OncoSignatur Breast, an affordable test that can be executed in local labs. The test is designed to operate on standard machines, combined with a proprietary software. This innovative test will be completely conducted by local cancer centres and hospitals, using only the ubiquitous PCR machines, the same that powered Covid diagnosis throughout the pandemic, supplemented with a user-friendly software. This software, designed to streamline the operator's task and generate patient reports, will be developed and validated under the proposed project. OncoSignatur Breast will remove logistical concerns, reduce the cost of testing, and shrink waiting times from weeks to hours. There is a growing demand for precision medicine; Signatur Biosciences aims to unlock a series of long-sought benefits, enabling the UK to become the world leader as a precision medicine provider. Signatur Biosciences designs simple assays for complex diseases. Those tests, coupled with a proprietary software, are designed to run on widely available equipment that already exists in labs around the world. OncoSignatur Breast will improve state-of-the-art clinical utility while empowering local healthcare to deliver personalised medicine through precision diagnostics. This award will provide the springboard for Signatur Biosciences to develop a portfolio of companion diagnostics, ensuring that no one will have to choose between high performance and low cost when it comes to finding the right treatment.