PrecisionLife has been awarded a €2.5m non-dilutive grant by the
European Innovation Council (EIC) for its TRANSCEND project, to more
rapidly and accurately triage and treat patients with endometriosis. The project
is based on PrecisionLife’s unique insights into the biological mechanisms
underpinning this complex chronic disease. It will develop and clinically validate
a rapid and non-invasive precision medicine test to evaluate a patient’s risk
of endometriosis and the mechanisms underpinning their disease. It will also enable
testing of repurposing drug candidates already identified by PrecisionLife in targeted groups of at-risk patients.
Endometriosis
is a debilitating and complex chronic disease, which affects 10% (190 million)
of reproductive age women and girls globally. The symptoms are varied and
unpredictable, often including severe, life-impacting pain, depression,
infertility, and increased risk of ovarian cancer. There is currently no way to
screen for endometriosis risk and it takes 8-10 years on average to diagnose,
only confirmed through painful, invasive and expensive laparoscopic surgery. The
PrecisionLife test will enable rapid differential triage of patients presenting
with deep pelvic pain using a simple, non-invasive buccal swab. Its results
will allow clinicians to quickly evaluate an individual’s lifetime risk of
endometriosis and several other diseases with similar symptoms to enable
accurate referral to the correct specialist. The same test will also uncover
the underlying mechanisms causing their form of the disease to help identify
and prescribe effective treatments. Clinical
validation of the test’s predictive accuracy and the efficacy of the
repurposing drug candidates, will provide new treatment options for patients, a
reimbursement route for the test, and enable the design of smaller, more
targeted clinical trials to accelerate the approval of new drug treatments. All
of this will help patients get diagnosed quicker and more accurately and access
more effective treatment options as rapidly as possible. “We're delighted to accept
this grant and thank the EIC for recognizing the urgent need to provide better
diagnostic tools and treatments for endometriosis. Project TRANSCEND will positively impact the lives of the
10 million women suffering from this massively debilitating and painful
condition in Europe and many more beyond,” said Steve Gardner, CEO of PrecisionLife. “By
improving the speed and accuracy of diagnosis[NK1] , we will significantly enhance patients' quality of
life and reduce the physical and emotional burden of the disease, whilst saving
health systems many thousands of dollars per patient.” PrecisionLife
is one of 71 companies selected for the round of EIC funding out of more than
1,200 submitted proposals, in what was the most competitive funding round since
the launch of the Accelerator under Horizon Europe in 2021. For further
information, read the news article: EIC Accelerator – 71
companies selected in the most competitive funding round so far Sign up here
to be kept informed about the progress of TRANSCEND and our related projects. Stay informed