Eurostars EU funding for disruptive technologies in cervical cancer screening secured.

Dutch and German partners are excited to announce that they received a Eurostars Grant for the development of assays that will improve cervical cancer screening and contribute to better cancer prevention and treatment.

The consortium

The Dutch project partners are Predica Diagnostics BV (Dr. Marco de Boer, Dr. William Leenders), together with Radboud University Medical Center (Nijmegen, the Netherlands; Prof. Martijn Huijnen). The German project partners are Charite-Universitätsmedizin Berlin (PD Dr. Andreas M. Kaufmann) and GenID GmbH (Strassberg, Germany; Dr. Rosemarie Preyer).

The PRECARE project

With appx. 567,000 new cases and 311,000 deaths yearly, cervical cancer is the third most common malignancy in women and fourth in mortality worldwide. Cervical cancer is caused by high-risk Human Papillomaviruses (hrHPV). HrHPV tests are recommended for screening due to high sensitivity to identify a risk for any kind of cervical dysplasia, but clinical specificity is low (<20%) since most infections and low-grade dysplasia regress spontaneously. This results in high rates of overdiagnosis and overtreatment. At the same time, there is underdiagnosis of a large group of HPV-positive women who do not participate in screening.

The PRECARE consortium partners (Predica Diagnostics, Radboudumc, CharitéUniversitäsmedizin Berlin, and GenlD GmbH) develop innovative high-throughput and costeffective first-in-kind biomarker-based assay systems (CERVICARE) for analysis of cervical scrapes and cervicovaginal self-swabs. In-depth mRNA mapping and application of machine learning on large datasets will be used to accurately and timely predict presence and severitygrade of hrHPV-induced cervical precancer abnormalities and their potential for progression and regression, all in one single testing round. With the test results high-grade abnormalities with progressive potential can be directly treated before these progress to cancer, while women with low-grade non-progressive lesions can be spared from traumatic treatment.

Dr. Marco de Boer, CEO of Predica Diagnostics: “This Eurostars project is a great opportunity for leading companies and universities to collaborate and develop tests that will allow early detection, prevention and proper treatment of cervical cancer. We have been collaborating with the German partners with lots of fun and energy, and this Eurostars project underlines our mutual drive to make impact for patients”.

Dr. William Leenders, CSO of Predica Diagnostics and associate professor at Radboudumc: “Implementation of the CERVICARE assays, hand-in-hand with thorough data analyses, will solve current problems of underscreening, overdiagnosis and overtreatment of women. We will thereby contribute to a significant reduction of cervical cancer burden and help to eliminate cervical cancer as a public health problem worldwide. I am extremely happy that with this Eurostars project we get the opportunity to translate expert knowledge into novel tests that I am sure will have big impact.”

Dr. Andreas M. Kaufmann, head of HPV laboratory at Charité: “Our common efforts translate innovative techniques and recent research findings into applied diagnostics that bring individualized precision medicine to every woman. Importantly, from the very beginning, we included strategies for screening underserved women in low and middle income countries, where the greatest need is and where the largest impact can be achieved.”

Rosemarie Preyer, CEO of GenID Genome Identification Diagnostics GmbH: ”With our longstanding experience in research of HPV infection and its application in innovative Eurostars Press Release v2022114 diagnostics, we’re glad to add to this Eurostars project and join forces with our partners for the benefit of the patients.” Prof. Dr. Martijn Huijnen of the RadboudUMC. “We use our strengths in microbiology, gynaecology, pathology and bioinformatics to advance our academic research into a specific application for precision medicine in cervical cancer. I am very happy to be able to do this in the Eurostars project on an international scale and to collaborate with our academic and industrial partners to advance knowledge and make a difference in women’s health.

About Predica Diagnostics

Predica Diagnostics B.V. is a spinoff from the Radboudumc, and develops molecular diagnostic tests based on platform technology that uses targeted next generation sequencing of RNA. Predica is active in the field of diagnostics, prognostics and prediction of treatment response in oncology.

About GENID

Genome Identification Diagnostics GmbH (GenID) develops and produces IVDs in the field of pathogens, human genetics and immunology, and – together with its sister company AID – has a vast portfolio of assays with worldwide distribution for more than 30 years.

About Charite-Universitätsmedizin Berlin

Charité is the medical center of Berlins Humboldt University and of Free University and a full University on it own. It holds rank 5 of 1000 hospitals worldwide in a comparison by Newsweek in 2022. Clinical care and medical research are of highest standards. Charité engages vividly in medical and diagnostic innovations that solve current global health problems and support healthcare improvements also in low-and-middle-income countries.

About Radboudumc

Radboud university medical center is a university medical center for patient care, research, and education, located in Nijmegen. Radboudumc strives to be at the forefront of shaping the health and healthcare of the future. This is reflected in our mission: “to have a significant impact on health (care)”. It demands that we innovate and reinvigorate through collaboration within our networks and with a focus on the individual person. We mainly concentrate on prevention, meaningful and prudent healthcare, sustainability, artificial intelligence and data-driven systems, the molecular mechanisms of diseases and new treatments, and training the professionals of tomorrow.

Contact: Marco de Boer (Ph.D, MBA), CEO

Tel: +31 (0) 6 4444 8450

E-Mail: marco.deboer@predicadx.co