Bio firm Exopia develops blood-based multi-cancer early diagnosis tech with Japanese team

Exopia, a bio-company specializing in early cancer diagnosis, has developed a cutting-edge technology with a Japanese research team to diagnose various cancers using blood.

Exopia announced on the 3rd that it has jointly developed a 'blood-based multi-cancer early diagnosis technology' with Professor Ochiya Takahiro's research team at the University of Tokyo.

This is a diagnostic method that can simultaneously screen for five major cancers, including pancreatic, lung, breast, liver, and colon cancer, by analyzing proteins in extracellular vesicles, commonly called 'exosomes,' in the blood.

The research team explained that this method allows for high-sensitivity quantitative analysis of target proteins, which is superior to existing methods that were cumbersome and expensive due to the separate isolation process of exosomes.

The accuracy of cancer diagnosis using this technology is around 94%, and it has also shown potential in predicting the organ where the cancer originated, not just simple diagnosis.

Exosomes are microparticles, 30-150 nanometers (one billionth of a meter) in size, secreted by cells. They contain various proteins and genetic information that reflect the characteristics of cancer, making them a key target for early cancer diagnosis.

In particular, blood-based tests are evaluated as next-generation technology because they are simple to perform and can detect cancer signals even in the early stages before they are identified by imaging tests like CT or MRI.

Exopia is a company founded by Honorary Professor Yoon Taek-rim, who previously served as the director of Chonnam National University Hospital. The company has been working with Professor Ochiya's team and a research team at Hwasun Chonnam National University Hospital to develop cancer early diagnosis technology tailored for Koreans.

The research results were recently published in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences, an academic journal in the medical and pharmaceutical field, and related patents have been filed with the two professors as joint inventors.