Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) startup corporations have been selected as recipients of support from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT).
UNIST said on the 8th that a startup, "ExoDiscovery Technologies," founded in the United States by the lab of Professor Cho Yoon-kyung in the biomedical engineering department, was selected as a CPRIT-supported corporations. The company secured $4.02 million (about 5.5 billion won) in commercialization funding over the next three years.
CPRIT is the second-largest cancer research institution after the National Cancer Institute (NCI). This year it invested a total of $154 million in 73 projects. ExoDiscovery Technologies ranked No. 1 among supported corporations in the Texas-region diagnostics and device fields.
ExoDiscovery Technologies is a company established based on the lab's exosome non-destructive capture technology developed by Cho. ExoDiscovery Technologies is developing a liquid-biopsy-based platform, "EDM (ExoDiscovery Monitor)." Centered on early detection of non-small cell lung cancer and monitoring during treatment, the company demonstrated strong competitiveness in this review.
The core technology captures exosomes in blood without damaging them. UNIST said this does not destroy the microstructure of exosomes secreted by cancer cells, so information is well preserved and diagnostic accuracy is correspondingly high.
A strength cited is the balanced achievement of sensitivity and specificity throughout the process from tracking initial onset to confirming treatment response. The system based on this reads cancer-related genetic signals in real time from exosomes in blood, and is up to 10,000 times more sensitive than conventional circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) tests. Results can be returned within a day, greatly speeding the selection of anticancer drugs and evaluation of response.
The university also said expense would be reduced by about 80% compared with existing methods under Medicare criteria.
Kim Young-sik, head of UNIST's Office of University-Industry Cooperation, said, "This selection is a case that shows a virtuous cycle in which UNIST technology leads to startups and then grows overseas," adding, "The process of entering a U.S. public program based on support from the small and strong special zone proves the successful global expansion potential of UNIST startup corporations."