Edinburgh Uni spin-out at cutting edge of cancer monitoring eyes human trials

A Scottish biotech firm that has developed a device that could revolutionise the early diagnosis and monitoring of difficult-to-detect cancers, has provided an upbeat outlook as it moves towards human trials.

University of Edinburgh spin-out business BioCaptiva, which raised more than £1 million in seed funding last year, has developed a medical device that captures circulating free DNA from the blood of patients in much greater quantities than the current standard of a single blood draw can.

The company’s BioCaptor technology, developed from the research led by board members Tim Aitman and Mark Bradley, has seen a number of important technical advances in the last nine months.

Bosses are confident that the technology has the potential to revolutionise the liquid biopsy market, estimated to be worth more than $6 billion (£4.4bn) by 2025.

Jeremy Wheeler, CEO of BioCaptiva, which has developed a medical device that captures circulating free DNA from the blood of patients in much greater quantities than the current standard of a single blood draw can. Picture: Peter Devlin

Providing an update on the firm’s recent progress, chief executive Jeremy Wheeler said: “The company is now well positioned to advance the BioCaptor into first human trials in 2022.

“With strong additions to the team and board since April, we are proud to have made significant technical advancements, a pre-submission to the FDA for the BioCaptor and made progress with the design of the first clinical trial for the device, including identification of our first clinical trial site.

“I look forward to reporting on the advancements made by the company in 2022 as we look to validate this exciting technology in man.”

Last April, BioCaptiva raised more than £1m in seed funding from Edinburgh-based business angel investment syndicate Archangels and Scottish Enterprise to further develop its technology.

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