Skip to main content
Premium Trial:

Request an Annual Quote

Scottish Startup Wins £574K to Commercialize Automated Liquid Biopsy Sample Prep Device

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Scottish startup Natantis said today that it has been awarded £574,000 ($724,497) by the Scottish Enterprise's High Growth Spin-Out Program  to commercialize a device for the automated extraction of cell-free DNA (cfDNA) from blood.

Natantis — founded by researchers at Heriot-Watt University — has developed the CNAsafe device, which it says can extract cfDNA from whole blood in 45 minutes for use in liquid biopsy assays.

The company expects to spin out from the university in 2020 and said it is in discussions with a number of potential investors.

"There is a very real market opportunity here and with its CNAsafe device, the Natantis team is primed to seize that opportunity," said Andrew Henderson of Scottish Enterprise's High Value Manufacturing and Health team in a statement. "I look forward to following the team's progress as they spin out into a fully-fledged company and make their mark on the world of medicine."

The Scan

Cancer Survival Linked to Mutational Burden in Pan-Cancer Analysis

A pan-cancer paper appearing in JCO Precision Oncology suggests tumor mutation patterns provide clues for predicting cancer survival that are independent of other prognostic factors.

Australian Survey Points to Public Support for Genetic Risk Disclosure in Relatives of At-Risk Individuals

A survey in the European Journal of Human Genetics suggests most adult Australians are in favor of finding out if a relative tests positive for a medically actionable genetic variant.

Study Links Evolution of Stony Coral Skeleton to Bicarbonate Transporter Gene

A PNAS paper focuses on a skeleton-related bicarbonate transporter gene introduced to stony coral ancestors by tandem duplication.

Hormone-Based Gene Therapy to Sterilize Domestic Cat

A new paper in Nature Communication suggests that gene therapy could be a safer alternative to spaying domestic cats.