SCIENION Partners with Institute for Prevention and Occupational Medicine (IPA) to Develop UROfast, a Rapid Bladder Cancer Diagnostics Platform
The breakthrough diagnostics platform uses a multiplexed lateral flow assay that detects 10 bladder cancer biomarkers from a urine sample in either laboratory or point-of-care settings.
Today SCIENION, a BICO company and leading developer of miniaturized multiplex diagnostic tests, announced a partnership with the Institute for Prevention and Occupational Medicine of the German Social Accident Insurance (IPA), a German academic research institute of the Ruhr University Bochum, to develop a novel bladder cancer diagnostic platform. The diagnostic multiplexed lateral-flow technology aims to detect 10 different biomarkers from a simple urine sample in under 20 minutes. The technology can be deployed in a point-of-care or laboratory setting, providing a significantly less invasive process than the current standard.
Each year more than 275,000 people are diagnosed with bladder cancer worldwide, with an estimated 108,000 deaths. Early-stage bladder cancer can be successfully treated by surgery but has a very high recurrence rate, with up to 73% of patients being rediagnosed within 5 years. This requires patients to participate in intensive follow ups and monitoring leading the disease to be one of the most expensive forms of cancer over time. The most common diagnostic tool used today is cystoscopy, an invasive and painful procedure in which physicians insert an imaging instrument via the urethra into the bladder to inspect for cancer occurrence.
“The UROfast will be a gamechanger for both patients and physicians by enabling rapid, scalable, and affordable testing for this aggressive form of cancer,” says Wilfried Weigel, PhD, Vice President Research & Development, SCIENION. “We are thrilled to be working with IPA and will work tirelessly to bring this diagnostic to market to help save lives.”
The UROfast diagnostic platform will both significantly improve accessibility and convenience for patients and physicians through its non-invasive nature. As part of the development process, IPA will leverage their know-how on biomarkers and more than 500 urine samples of their biobank, while SCIENION will use its automated precision dispensing technology for printing multiple biomarkers on a lateral flow immunoassay. The entire manufacturing process follows the EU’s In-vitro Diagnostic Medical Devices Regulation (IVDR) and aims to be approved for use in laboratory and point-of-care settings.
“By simultaneously and quantitatively determining multiple biomarkers, we ultimately integrate the currently available knowledge on biomarker-based approaches for bladder cancer diagnostics into a single test procedure” says Kerstin Lang, PhD, researcher at IPA and principal investigator in this project. “Our hope is to use invasive cystoscopy in a much more targeted manner to avoid associated side effects such as bleeding, burning and infection”.
The collaboration kicked off in 2021 and will last through 2024 when the two organizations will seek regulatory approval across the world. The research is partly funded by the central innovation program for SMEs (ZIM) from the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology of the Federal Republic of Germany.
To learn more about the UROfast diagnostic platform or collaboration opportunities with SCIENION, please contact:
SCIENION GmbH
Phone (GER): +46 30 63921700
Wilfried Weigel, PhD, Vice President Research & Development: +49 30 6392 1743, w.weigel@scienion.com
Talena Jarling, Project leader Research & Development: +49 30 6392 1697, t.jarling@scienion.com
For further information, please contact:
BICO Press office US
Riley Munks, PR Manager: +1 (650) 863-6699
Alyssa D’Orazio, PR Manager: +1 (617) 634-9601
Email: press@bico.com
This information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact persons set out above, on January 19, 2021, at 09:00 (CET).
About SCIENION
Founded in 2001, SCIENION is a renowned specialist in ultra-low volume precision liquid handling in the pico-liter to micro-liter range, enabling applications from research to high-throughput production of assays in diagnostics and life sciences. Addressing the dynamically increasing needs for miniaturization and multiplex analyses, SCIENION is a complete solution provider offering a unique portfolio of automated precision dispensing systems, readers, consumables, assay development and contract manufacturing services. The company operates from two sites in Germany, Dortmund and Berlin, and has subsidiaries in Arizona, USA; Chichester, UK; and Cellenion in Lyon, France.
SCIENION is part of BICO, the leading bio convergence company in the world that provides technologies, products and services to create the future of health.
About Institute for Prevention and Occupational Medicine of the German Social Accident Insurance (IPA)
The Institute for Prevention and Occupational Medicine of the German Social Accident Insurance (IPA), an Institute of the Ruhr University Bochum, carries out research on occupational diseases and work-related illnesses. IPA promotes the development of methods for their prevention and diagnosis based on medical science. The IPA is organized into five competence centers: Medicine, Toxicology, Allergology/Immunology, Molecular Medicine and Epidemiology, which work closely together on an interdisciplinary basis. In this way, it supports the statutory accident insurance institutions (GUV) in fulfilling their legal mandate for research on occupational diseases in accordance with the Code of Social Law (§ 9 Abs. 8 SGB VII). Research, consulting, laboratory services and education and training are oriented towards the needs of the GUV and their member companies.
The IPA is an institute of the Ruhr University Bochum and is therefore responsible for teaching and research in occupational medicine.