News Medical: Owlstone Medical wins up to $49.1 million award from ARPA-H to develop at-home multi-cancer-early detection tests
Owlstone Medical (“Owlstone”), the global leader in Breath Biopsy® for applications in early disease detection and precision medicine, today announced that it has won an award of up to $49.1 million from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) for the Platform Optimizing SynBio for Early Intervention and Detection in Oncology (POSEIDON) program. POSEIDON aims to develop first-in-class synthetic-sensor based Multi-Cancer-Early Detection (MCED) tests for Stage I detection of 30+ solid tumors using only breath and urine samples that can be performed in the home and are available over the counter.
Almost 40 % of Americans will develop cancer in their lifetimes and cancer is the second leading cause of death in the U.S. The number of new cancer diagnoses in 2025 is estimated to be more than 2 million, with over 618,000 cancer deaths, equivalent to almost 1,700 deaths every day. The patient-related economic burden of cancer in 2019 was more than $21 billion in the U.S., of which treatment costs are by far the largest component. Critically, costs associated with late-stage diagnoses are much higher than early-stage, however cancer is difficult to detect early when it is most curable.
Drastically reducing late-stage diagnoses by detecting cancer at Stage I would not only increase treatment effectiveness, but also significantly reduce cancer care costs, restoring up to $2.3 trillion to the U.S. economy. Currently available screening technologies are unable to address this need due to performance limitations, and many Americans are too remote to access clinic and hospital-based screening programs. While emerging technologies such as liquid biopsy hold great promise for later stage cancer detection and to help guide therapy selection, performance in early-stage cancer detection has been insufficient.
Owlstone’s project, in partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston University, Georgia Tech Research Corporation, Qurin B.V., and Planned Systems International Inc, aims to overcome this challenge by delivering accurate, low-cost cancer screening for 30+ solid tumors to Americans aged 18 and older.
The project involves the inhalation of a mix of pan-cancer and tumor-specific synthetic sensors from a single-use inhaler, which then circulate throughout the body and accumulate on the surface of cancer cells. The reporters produced by the sensors are either DNA-based which act as a readable barcode, or a set of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), supporting the detection of 36 cancers in total. These will be collected at-home or in clinic in urine samples and from breath respectively using portable collection and analysis devices. Results will be uploadable real-time to electronic health records (EHR) for rapid review by healthcare professionals, integrating seamlessly into clinical practice and digitally enabled care.
This unique approach offers significant advantages over competing technologies. These include boosting the signal to enhance test performance such that cancer is reliably detectable from early stage, enabling simple and non-invasive sample collection at home, rapid result generation and EHR integration, and a low-cost manufacturing model such that economics are not a barrier to adoption of the technology as the new standard of care for early cancer detection.
“The field of cancer screening needs a revolution, and POSEIDON stands ready to deliver. The program allows for a better future by creating broadly accessible, at-home tests that will accurately detect 30+ cancers as early as Stage I, when tumors are still small and the chances of survival are high,” said POSEIDON Program Manager Ross Uhrich, DMD, MBA. “This revolutionary funding effort brings together experts in synthetic biology, oncology, medical devices, big cancer data, and commercialization to create test kits that will transform how and when people are screened for cancer. POSEIDON will allow every American the opportunity to test themselves long before they have symptoms and at their discretion. POSEIDON’s rigorous performance metrics and translational focus reflect our clear commitment to bring these technologies safely and directly to all Americans.”
“Access to an accurate and low-cost MCED test that does not require a doctor’s visit or laboratory testing is key to preventing late-stage diagnoses. This award validates both breath as a diagnostic approach and Owlstone’s EVOC® probes as a reporter technology to overcome the shortcomings and challenges that have held back early cancer detection previously. We are grateful to ARPA-H for the opportunity to bring transformative MCED testing to every American within the next decade.” – Billy Boyle, Co-Founder and CEO, Owlstone Medical.
