Procyon Diagnostics

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About Us

Procyon Diagnostics is a new spin out company from Queen Mary University of London (QMUL). The aim of the company is to help commercialise clinical biomarker technology arising from QMUL research and development.

Procyon utilises advanced biomarker technologies with algorithmic and machine learning analysis and aims to become a leading provider of new precision assays for early cancer detection, primarily based on primarily based on body fluids such as blood and urine.

Procyon’s first product, planned for Q4 of 2026, will be the PancRISK test, invented by Queen Mary’s Professor Tatjana Crnogorac-Jurcevic, to detect pancreatic cancer.

Procyon aims to be a lead provider of biomarker technologies for detecting early-stage cancers, with target markets including Europe, North America, and the Middle East. Alongside testing, Procyon will use the data collected for further research to develop more new non-invasive tests, primarily based on body fluids such as blood and urine.

Why Focus on Pancreatic Cancer?

Pancreatic Cancer

  • 10th most common cancer in the UK
  • UK Yearly incidence – 11,600 new cases (500,000 globally)
  • UK Deaths per year – 10,000 (470,000 globally)
  • Five-year survival of <10% in the UK
  • Lack of specific symptoms at an early stage
  • No early detection diagnostics currently available

This chart shows how cancer survival depends on the type. In contrast to cancers like thyroid, prostate and testicular, which have excellent outcomes, with most patients living beyond five years, pancreatic cancer has the  lowest survival rates because it is often diagnosed too late. The message is clear – early detection saves lives.

Survival of pancreatic cancer patients depends on the stage the disease was detected; if it was at the stage when cancer is localised and can be surgically removed, survival can increase over 10-fold in comparison with cancer that was diagnosed at the advanced stage, with distant metastases. Currently, over 80% of patients are diagnosed at this late stage. But early detection and intervention can significantly increase survival rates.

Our Solution

PancRISK is a pancreatic cancer test built on over fifteen years of research and innovation led by Professor Tatjana Crnogorac-Jurcevic, a leading expert in molecular pathology and biomarkers at Queen Mary’s Barts Cancer Institute (https://www.bci.qmul.ac.uk/staff/professor-tatjana-crnogorac-jurcevic/.

PancRISK test is built on a strong scientific understanding of how pancreatic cancer develops, particularly through the study of early precursor lesions (PanINs) that can provide important early disease signals (1). To create a truly non-invasive test, we carried out detailed protein analysis of urine (2), an easily obtainable and underused biofluid (3), and identified a panel of three protein biomarkers capable of detecting early-stage (Stage I-II) pancreatic cancer with approx. 90% accuracy (4). This urinary biomarker panel has since been validated in multiple independent patient cohorts (5). We also developed the algorithm

which uses these biomarkers to classify individuals as having either an increased or an average risk of developing pancreatic cancer (6). Finally, our recent research has shown that the test can identify pancreatic cancer up to two years before clinical diagnosis, offering a significant opportunity for earlier intervention (7).

  1. Crnogorac-Jurcevic T, Chelala C, Barry S, Harada T, Bhakta V, Lattimore S, Jurcevic S, Bronner M, Lemoine NR, Brentnall TA. Molecular analysis of precursor lesions in familial pancreatic cancer. PLoS One. 2013;8(1):e54830. PMID: 23372777.DOI: 1371/journal.pone.0054830
  1. Weeks ME, Hariharan D, Petronijevic L, Radon TP, Whiteman HJ, Kocher HM, Timms JF, Lemoine NR, Crnogorac-Jurcevic T. Analysis of the urine proteome in patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. Proteomics Clin Appl. 2008 Jul;2(7-8):1047-57. PMID: 21136905. DOI: 1002/prca.200780164
  1. Crnogorac-Jurcevic T. Brief history of urinalysis – from ancient uroscopy to 21st century urinomics. Advances in Biomarker Sciences and Technology (2024). PMID: 270498941. org/10.1016/j.abst.2024.06.001
  1. Radon TP, Massat NJ, Jones R, Alrawashdeh W, Dumartin L, Ennis D, Duffy SW, Kocher HM, Pereira SP, Guarner posthumous L, Murta-Nascimento C, Real FX, Malats N, Neoptolemos J, Costello E, Greenhalf W, Lemoine NR, Crnogorac-Jurcevic T. Identification of a Three-Biomarker Panel in Urine for Early Detection of Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma. Clin Cancer Res. 2015 Aug 1;21(15):3512-21. PMID: 26240291; DOI: 1158/1078-0432.CCR-14-2467
  1. Debernardi S et al. 6. A combination of urinary biomarker panel and PancRISK score for earlier detection of pancreatic cancer: A case-control study. PLoS Med(2020) 17(12):e1003489. PMID: 33301466 DOI: 1371/journal.pmed.1003489
  1. Development of PancRISK, a urine biomarker-based risk score for stratified screening of pancreatic cancer patients. British Journal of Cancer(2020) Mar;122(5):692-696. PMID: 31857725 DOI: 1038/s41416-019-0694-0
  1. Debernardi S, Blyuss O, Rycyk D, Srivastava K, Jeon CY, Cai H, Cai Q, Shu XO, Crnogorac-Jurcevic T. Urine biomarkers enable pancreatic cancer detection up to 2 years before diagnosis. Int J Cancer. 2023 Feb 15;152(4):769-780. PMID: 36093581 DOI: 1002/ijc.34287

Clinical Validation

PancRISK is currently being validated in UroPanc trial (https://www.pcrf.org.uk/uropanc-study/) with funding from the Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund. It is a large observational clinical trial (https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT04449406)  designed to confirm the accuracy of our patented biomarker panel and the risk score.

 

The study focuses on two groups at increased risk:

  • individuals with hereditary risk factors, including family history or genetic syndromes, and
  • patients experiencing vague symptoms that may be associated with pancreatic cancer.

 

Interim results show strong test performance, supporting our goal of integrating this test into a new, improved diagnostic pathway for pancreatic cancer.

Assessment of the economic and societal impact of the test is ongoing, and the study is expected to be completed in September 2027.

Our Method

PancRISk test is based on ELISA (enzyme linked immunosorbent assay). It is a simple, robust, and highly affordable method for detecting and quantifying proteins, relying on straightforward workflows and inexpensive reagents. It offers a short turnaround time of approximately one day and uses standard instrumentation that is widely available across virtually all clinical laboratories.

Our Team

Dr Anthony Cooke – CEO

Tony has over 40 years of diagnostic development and commercialisation experience in In-vitro Diagnostic Products, from development to manufacturing, regulatory requirements to lab operations. His most recent position was as CEO and CSO of Cambridge Clinical Labs and prior to that a consultant in IVD  regulatory compliance and Development and Manufacturing Director at Lab21 Group (now Novacyt SA).  For the last 5 years he has been helping introduce a variety of early detection cancer tests into the private healthcare market and NHS in UK from a variety of manufacturers around the World. He is committed to improving the UK’s performance in detecting cancer early and PancRISK is an opportunity to do that in the UK but also the rest of the world. He has been involved with many start up companies in his career and particularly enjoys the challenges in leading them to success.

Professor Tatjana Crnogorac-Jurcevic – CSO

Tatjana obtained her MBBS degree and MD thesis at the Medical Faculty, University of Zagreb in Croatia, and her PhD at the Imperial College School of Medicine in London. She is Professor of Molecular Pathology and Biomarkers at Barts Cancer Institute, Queen Mary University of London. She has over 25 years of experience in cancer research, has authored more than 90 original peer-reviewed manuscripts and holds several patents. She is passionate about translating this knowledge into patient benefit. Her major interest is in improving early detection of cancer, non-invasively, in urine samples. She has discovered a panel of biomarkers for early detection of pancreatic cancer, one of the deadliest malignancies, and is aiming to develop this into a clinical test for improving survival of pancreatic cancer patients.

Clive Minihan – Chairman

Clive Minihan has for the past 30 years worked with start-ups and small technology companies, both in the UK and USA. He has been instrumental in 5 exits, involving sales to companies including Becton Dickinson (Sirigen, a spin out from UCSB), Thermo Fisher and Siemens, totaling over £200 million. Taking some businesses from their day zero to their final successful exit, Clive understands how to build highly successive businesses that will produce returns on investment. Clive is Co-Founder and Joint Managing Director of Personalised Diagnostics Limited, a SaaS platform provider in human and animal diagnostics, and Chair of Veterinary Diagnostics Solutions Limited. He has an MBA from Harvard Business School, an MA from Oxford University, and is a qualified accountant. He is a Board Member of the Harvard Business School Alumni Angels of the UK, and is also a Mentor on the NHS England Clinical Entrepreneurs Programme.

Andrew Halliday – CTO

Andrew is an accomplished entrepreneurial leader with a proven track record in the HealthTech sector. He excels in establishing innovative, operationally robust systems and processes, having led the design and implementation of multiple platforms using iterative, agile methodologies. With a collaborative leadership style, he navigates complex regulatory landscapes to deliver high-impact solutions. His experience spans from a background in Zoology and postgraduate research to developing cutting-edge healthtech products and scalable system architectures, ensuring both security and efficiency. Passionate about leveraging technology to improve healthcare outcomes, he remains dedicated to transforming healthtech ecosystems through visionary leadership and agile execution.