Tailor Bio, a MedTech startup based in Cambridge, has been successful in leading a 拢650k grant聽 collaboration for the Innovate UK Biomedical Catalyst Award.聽
Tailor was founded to improve precision medicine approaches for cancers with chromosomal聽 instability, a phenomenon present in over 80% of all cancers.聽
Founded from research that originated from the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, Tailor Bio is currently developing a pan-cancer precision medicine platform to produce new therapeutic and diagnostic approaches to improving patient care.聽
Innovate UK, the UK鈥檚 innovation agency, funds business and research collaborations to accelerate聽 innovation and drive business investment into R&D. This is the second Innovate UK grant that Tailor聽 has received in support of the commercialisation of its technology platform and follows the successful development of a prototype as part of the Illumina Accelerator.聽
The latest grant will allow Tailor Bio, along with collaborators Illumina and the University of Cambridge, to continue the development of a first diagnostic test to predict doxorubicin response in patients with high-grade serous ovarian cancer.聽聽
Each year over 7,000 people are diagnosed with ovarian cancer in the UK. Many patients will be聽 prescribed doxorubicin, a common chemotherapy drug, even though approximately half of these聽 patients will actually benefit from the therapy. Tailor Bio鈥檚 doxorubicin test can help identify which聽 patients will not respond well to this common treatment, allowing patients to avoid potential toxic聽 side effects and the cost of ineffectual treatment.聽
The project will evaluate the compatibility of Tailor鈥檚 technology with the Illumina TruSight Oncology聽 (TSO) Comprehensive (EU) assay, which has recently received CE-IVD certification in Europe and is聽 being implemented across the National Health Service.聽
鈥淲e鈥檙e delighted that Innovate UK continues to support the commercialisation of our technology,鈥� said Jason Yip, CEO of Tailor Bio.聽
鈥淚n addition to addressing an unmet need in ovarian cancer, Tailor鈥檚 doxorubicin test is a pivotal step for us to validate our precision medicine platform.聽
鈥淪tratifying patients away from ineffective treatment is beneficial, but the ultimate aim of Tailor Bio is to develop better therapeutic treatments for cancers with chromosomal instability.鈥�