Newcastle medtech secures £3.5m for development of diagnostic technology

A medical science organisation has raised £3.5m in funding to further develop its ‘unique’ diagnostic technology.

Newcastle-based Biosignatures has spent 10 years developing its machine learning system which aims to provide a cost-effective option in unearthing new diagnostic tests.

To bring its solution to the mass market, it is looking to work with other major players in the global healthcare sector, and is seeking backing from UK stakeholders.

It will use the funding to analyse hundreds of thousands of blood samples in order to develop 20 new screening tests, which can be used to tell if a patient has cancer earlier than ever before.

Will Dracup, co-founder and CEO of Biosignatures, said: “It is safe to say that if Biosignatures can deliver on this vision - as we believe we can - it will be transformative for healthcare delivery worldwide.

“Vast amounts of money can be saved if an effective set of screening tests can be developed. We will literally be saving billions, by saving millions.”

Biosignatures’ funding efforts were overseen by ADV. Mike Dimelow, co-founder and CCO at ADV, added: “We’ve now invested more than £25m into health & wellbeing start-ups and have looked at hundreds more. Biosignatures is completely unique and has the potential to make a giant leap in diagnostic blood testing.

“This team is disrupting a trillion-dollar industry and so competing with billion dollar companies. To truly fulfil this vision the team needs the backing of the ecosystem and significant funding. We’ll do everything we can to back their ambition and we’re so excited to be involved.”

Dave Bramwell, co-founder and CTO of Biosignatures, commented: “We have spent many years optimising and perfecting the large, high quality data set production capability needed for the successful application of our advanced AI discovery systems. This work gives us confidence that the biosignatures we discover will translate and validate in the clinic.”