Why we invested in Elypta

Metabolism-based liquid biopsy for early detection of various forms of cancer.

Elypta’s mission is to prevent cancer mortality through early detection.

The central dogma outlines the different “levels of programming” of biology. DNA instructs the synthesis of RNA, which instructs the synthesis of proteins, which ultimately affect the behaviour of biochemical and cellular processes; processes that makes our body tick – or in some cases – not tick. In this context, the metabolome represents the end-products of all such biochemical and cellular processes. Now, in the context of data driven life science, the metabolome could be seen as another data source (in addition the genome, proteome and transcriptome) that describes the complex biological state of a patient.

Within the scientific field of metabolomics, glycosaminoglycans (GAGs, biomolecules centrally involved in cancer) found in biofluids have been hypothesised as a viable biomarker for cancer: By detecting free cancer associated GAGs, one should be able to diagnose cancer.

Elypta took that hypothesis and built a novel metabolic-based approach to cancer detection, packaged in a technology platform for liquid biopsy. In studies they’ve outperformed genomic and proteomic approaches and proven a viable pathway to multi-cancer detection. A potential gold standard for early-stage cancer detection. A data driven disruption to healthcare.

Investment date

June 2017