Diagnostics
UK startup Stride has raised £4.6m in seed funding to develop its preventative health platform and support international expansion. The platform combines DNA, blood and gut health testing with personalised insights to help users understand their health data, track changes and identify potential risks earlier. Launched in May 2024 by Olympic medallist and DNAfit co-founder [...]
Posted in partnership with Jeen Health England's 10 Year Health Plan commits to population-based polygenic risk scoring aimed at people at high risk of common disease. Forty years of epidemiology suggests that is where the fewest cases are. The 10 Year Health Plan for England commits the NHS to a genomics population health service, accessible [...]
The UK has launched an £80m dementia tech challenge to test nine digital technologies aimed at speeding up and improving diagnosis in NHS settings. The Dementia Challenge includes AI-enabled clinical decision support, remote cognitive assessments, faster MRI scans and home-monitoring technology. Diagnosis can take more than a year, with around 60 per cent of people [...]
A urine RNA test identified 95 per cent of localised bladder cancers in a study and may help predict response to immunotherapy or chemotherapy. The test analyses RNA messages shed by tumour cells into urine, rather than searching for cancer-related DNA mutations as most blood and urine liquid biopsy tests do. Because RNA reflects which [...]
Blue Health Intelligence has raised €3.4m for international expansion and further development of its preventive healthcare products. The Amsterdam-based company provides in-person health checks covering cardiovascular health, metabolism, and liver and kidney function. Its €299 health check uses hundreds of data points and takes about one hour, according to the company. Results are discussed with [...]
Researchers warn social media may be driving healthy people to take Alzheimer’s blood tests, risking anxiety over markers that may never lead to dementia. Blood-based biomarker tests such as p-tau217 and p-tau181 detect biological signs associated with Alzheimer’s disease, a progressive brain disorder and the leading cause of dementia. The tests look for abnormal proteins [...]
A University of Bristol University spinout has launched with more than £700,000 of pre-seed funding to develop a blood test for detecting and monitoring microvascular disease. Dimension Technologies' novel blood test aims identify biochemical signs of disease in the microvasculature, the network of microscopic blood vessels that delivers oxygen and nutrients throughout the body. Damage [...]
The results suggest the test could help identify patients at greater risk of bladder cancer who may need to be prioritised for urgent cystoscopy. Researchers hope it could reduce the number of patients requiring urgent cystoscopies, invasive procedures in which a small camera is inserted through the urethra into the bladder. The study was led [...]
A new global initiative will see labs across the world harness wastewater as an early warning system for public health protection. Global Wastewater Day will bring together scientists, governments, water utilities and public health organisations to use wastewater as an early warning system for future pandemics. The initiative will coordinate sampling on 31 March 2027, [...]
Eyedentity has raised €1.3m to develop its AI diagnostics platform, pursue regulatory approval and expand into opticians, eye clinics and hospitals. The MedTech startup is developing technology to detect serious eye diseases using fundus images already captured during routine eye examinations. Its first application focuses on uveal melanoma, a rare but potentially deadly eye cancer [...]
