The gastrointestinal health company Cyted has received a £1 million grant from Innovate UK to launch its first major precision medicine project for diagnosis and treatment response prediction for the condition Eosinophilic Esophagitis (EoE).

The non-endoscopic EndoSign platform is already used in the Heartburn Health Check to identify patients at risk of developing oesophageal cancer. This new programme is a first step to increase the impact of non-endoscopic testing and make care for digestive diseases accessible to more patients.

Marcel Gehrung, CEO & co-founder of Cyted, said: “This grant allows us to build on our existing diagnostic technology to help many more people with undiagnosed or ongoing oesophageal conditions. Eosinophilic Esophagitis is treatable, but often undetected until a patient develops complications. Our EndoSign platform will make a real difference to patients by decreasing the need for endoscopy and improving treatment decisions.”

EoE is a chronic inflammatory condition of the oesophagus and affects up to 1 in 1000 individuals and is responsible for a significant cost burden to healthcare systems. The condition can result in damage to the oesophagus, causing difficulty swallowing, pain, and even medical emergencies when food gets stuck. The developed test will also support clinicians in assessing a patient’s likelihood of responding to associated drug or dietary therapy, indicating the appropriate treatment for EoE patients. This will improve patient outcomes as well as reducing the time and cost associated with more invasive and expensive endoscopies.

The Innovate UK grant has been awarded as part of the Advancing Precision Medicine programme, aimed at driving UK productivity and economic growth through providing facilities and funding to test, demonstrate and evolve innovation in the health sector.                                                            

With the support of this grant, Cyted aims to use its expertise in non-endoscopic technologies and biomarker discovery to develop new tests to diagnose EoE in patients, and support treatment decisions in cases where the condition has already been diagnosed.