Upfront Diagnostics announces £1.6m seed funding round

Upfront Diagnostics, a healthcare company focused on discovering new biomarkers that can be applied in medical diagnostics, has announced a £1.6 million seed funding round.

The investment was led by Apex Ventures Medical Fund, followed by grant funding from SBRI Healthcare in partnership with the Stroke Association for Upfront Diagnostic’s patented blood-based diagnostic LVOne.

Upfront Diagnostics is one of seven companies selected by SBRI Healthcare, an Accelerated Access Collaborative Initiative in partnership with the Stroke Association, to drive more funding for stroke research. The company has been awarded a £799,000 grant to support the development and evaluation of the prototype ahead of real-world implementation.

Upfront Diagnostics’ LVOne is a point-of-care rapid test to identify patients suffering from acute ischemic stroke due to large vessel occlusion (LVO).

More than 20 million strokes occur annually globally. LVOs are responsible for 30% of strokes but 95% of disabilities and deaths. There are 375,000 deaths due to stroke in the countries of the European Union and this number is expected to rise by a third by 2035.

Traditional stroke diagnosis methods often involve time-consuming and expensive imaging techniques, leading to delays in initiation of treatment. By identifying upfront diagnostics biomarkers with a handheld blood test, paramedics can identify LVO stroke cases within 15 minutes and take patients directly to a comprehensive stroke center for treatment. It saves more than 1 hour and 30 minutes on the existing clinical route, saves billions in cost of medical treatment, helps avoid disability and saves lives.

Gonzalo Ladreda, co-founder of Upfront Diagnostics, said: “With this significant funding, we are poised to transform stroke diagnosis and make a tangible impact on patient care around the world.

“Our rapid blood test has the potential to revolutionize stroke management by providing paramedics and physicians with actionable insights within minutes, enabling them to make informed treatment decisions faster.”

This time-saving difference in early diagnosis could mean a 20% reduction in disability from LVO stroke. For every 15 minutes of earlier treatment, there is a cost savings of more than $60,000 per patient. Ultimately, faster diagnosis leads to better outcomes for all.”

LVOne was validated on 270 patients at Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Infirmary Hospital and is designed to identify LVO stroke in an ambulance so patients can be rapidly transported to a thrombectomy-specialised hospital for treatment. Within 15 minutes, the test allows paramedics to identify LVOs anywhere with very high accuracy.

The test has been developed in collaboration with Innovate UK, Newcastle University, the Academic Health Sciences Network, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), SBRI Healthcare, the Stroke Association and the NHS Foundation Trust.

Stroke treatment involves manually removing large blood clots from the brain. This procedure can be performed up to 24 hours after a stroke, but its effectiveness is highest during the first six hours.

The current stroke patient’s treatment journey requires inter-hospital transfers for various stages of stroke diagnosis. In the UK, only 24 hospitals can properly identify and treat LVO, and many of these only operate within working hours. As a consequence, the majority of patients are identified at a non-specialty hospital and require secondary ambulance transfer to access thrombectomy treatment. Due to this, most of the LVO patients miss the treatment facility.

The seed funding will be used to scale up the technology and its accuracy to identify large arterial strokes on real-world patients. Upfront Diagnostics will also expand its team and prepare for clinical approval.

Dr Pooja Sikka, General Practitioner in the UK and Venture Partner at Apex Ventures Medical Fund, said: “I am delighted to support the Upfront Diagnostics team, who began their journey in Cambridge, UK. LVOne can revolutionize stroke care pathways globally, enabling faster patient delivery to stroke centers and faster access to interventional radiology services, generating positive clinical outcomes faster Can be It can be a rare find to find an investment in health tech where you so definitively change the outcome, but this is one of them.

“The impact will also be felt on the health care workforce, the social care system and the wider economic benefits of this solution. Stroke is a preventable disease but it is on the rise. We need better diagnostics and customized care pathways. Effective point-of-care testing is fundamental to achieving this.

Dr. Gordon Euler, Partner, Apex Ventures Medical Fund, said: ,We believe that our partnership with Upfront Diagnostics will have a significant impact on stroke care. We hope that with our support, they will be able to continue to innovate within the NHS and meet greater patient needs. More innovations and ideas from these partnerships are needed in the future to increase the chances of saving lives.

Upfront Diagnostics (formerly known as Pocket) was founded in 2017 by a group of University of Cambridge students – Gonzalo Ladreda, Dr. Edoardo Gaude, Marcos Ladreda and Dr. Joshua Bernstock, and since 2019 is a Cambridge Enterprise Endorsed by. Searching for biomarkers that can be applied to improve medical diagnosis, the team includes biologists and physicians with long research expertise who have been working with long-standing physicians since their early days.

Gonzalo Ladreda studied at Cambridge Judge Business School’s Entrepreneurship Program. Dr. Edoardo Goud has a PhD in Oncology from the University of Cambridge (UK) and has been working for 10 years on the discovery of biomarkers for various human diseases. Marcos Ladreda Biomedical scientist focused on immunoassay development, specifically advanced lateral flow testing. Dr. Joshua Bernstock specialized in Pediatric Neurosurgical Oncology at Harvard Medical School and did his PhD from the University of Cambridge (UK).