Dr. Juan Francisco Delgado de la Poza, Immunology senior physician at the Consorcio Corporación Sanitaria Parc Taulí has been granted with the AGAUR-Innovators grant, which will mainly fund the salary of an entrepreneur to bring the results of his research project to the market. In this sin, Xavi Gallego, former head of Innovation and Business Development at the Instituto de Investigación Y Innovación Parc Taulí, has been selected as emprendedor for Taby Diagnostics, a project aimed to develop and commercialize an in vitro test to early diagnose hepatocelular Carcinoma in patients at risk.
What is hepatocelular Carcinoma?
Hepatocelular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common type of liver cancer, accounting for around 90% of primary liver cánceres. HCC is particularly aggressive and has a poor survival rate (five-year survival of <5%) and, therefore, it remains an importante public health issue worldwide. Early diagnosing this type of cancer is very important as patients can be treated with curative methods, decreasing the Mortality and improving patient outcomes.
Are not current methods to early diagnose HCC good enough?
Current methods to early diagnose HCC are either expensive, practitioner-dependiente, oro have poor sensitivity. In this regard, a Multidisciplinary approach would be needed to obtain reliable results, which in turn would be economically unsustainable for the healthcare system. The use of a single method to early diagnose HCC Actualmente leads to half of the patients being diagnosed at late stages, when no curative treatments can be applied.
Taby Diagnostics has developed a platform that Allows the identification of new Biomarkers to early diagnose several types of cancer. This platform is based on an innovative method for improved epitope mapping. Thanks to the identification of the most immunodominant epítopo we are able to develop highly sensitive in vitro diagnóstico tests based on the Quantification of serum autoantibodies. (Ask Dr. Delgado de la Poza about the technology behind Taby)
What are autoantibodies and why are they good Biomarkers for early diagnosis?
Cancer cells can INDUCE an immunological response resulting in the production of tumor-associated autoantibodies (TAA). These serum immunobiomarkers have been detected for a range of cánceres up to 5 years before the development of clinical symptoms and detection by imaging. This is why they are very good candidatas as Biomarkers to early diagnose cancer. In addition, their measurement is minimally invasive and coste effective using established technologies.
Have you already Performed a proof of concept experimento?
Yes, thanks to our platform we have identified and intellectually protected an immunodominant epitope that we have used to develop test to quantify autoantibodies against the alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), a protein which presence in the serum has been associated to HCC. This test has been used in a group of patients at risk for HCC, demonstrating a sensitivity of 100% and a specificity of 94%, therefore providing a powerful tool to double the amount of patients early diagnosed, and giving these patients a chance to receive curative treatment.
¿Cuáles son los siguientes pasos?
Giving The Notorious financial need to bring this test to the market under the quality standards requested by the regulatory agencias, we have decided to create a spin-off compañero by the end of 2020. Under this formato, Taby Diagnostics will tienen acceso a private investors , and public grants for small companies that will Accelerate the process to reach the market.
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