Proteotype Joins Elite EU Network to Advance Breast Cancer Blood Tests

CAMBRIDGE, England – April 27, 2026 – Cambridge-based Proteotype Diagnostics has secured a coveted position in a prestigious European research network, a move that signals a major validation of its pioneering blood-testing technology and accelerates the push toward more personalized breast cancer treatment.

The company was selected as an industrial partner in the HER-CARE Marie Skłodowska-Curie Doctoral Network (MSCA-DN), an EU-funded initiative uniting Europe’s top cancer research institutions. The collaboration aims to train the next generation of scientists while advancing innovative strategies for hereditary and early-stage breast cancer.

A New Frontier in Cancer Detection

At the heart of this partnership is Proteotype's proprietary diagnostic platform, which represents a significant departure from many contemporary approaches. Instead of searching for fragments of tumor DNA in the blood, the company's technology measures the body's own immune response to the presence of a tumor.

This immunodiagnostic method analyzes "amino-acid–resolved protein signatures" (AACS) in a simple blood sample. By detecting subtle fluctuations in specific amino acid residues, the platform can identify an immunological signal that indicates the presence of cancer, even at its earliest stages.

The power of this approach was detailed in a seminal paper published in Nature Communications in July 2025. In a clinical cohort, the AACS platform successfully identified 78% of early-stage (Stage I-II) breast cancers. Remarkably, it did so with a 0% false positive rate, achieving an Area Under the Receiver Operating Characteristic (AUROC) curve of 0.95—a statistical measure indicating exceptionally high diagnostic accuracy. This level of precision addresses a key limitation of current screening methods like mammography, which can struggle with false positives and have reduced sensitivity in women with dense breast tissue.

The technology's design, which uses bio-orthogonal fluorescent labels for high-throughput analysis without complex sample preparation, positions it as a potentially scalable solution for routine clinical screening.

Solving a Critical Treatment Puzzle

Beyond early detection, Proteotype’s technology is tackling one of modern oncology's most pressing challenges: predicting which patients will respond to targeted therapies. The platform has already demonstrated a 98% accuracy in predicting which patients with advanced breast cancer will benefit from cyclin-dependent kinase 4/6 inhibitors (CDK4/6i).

These drugs have transformed outcomes for many patients with hormone receptor–positive breast cancer, the most common subtype. However, a significant portion of patients do not respond, exposing them to potential side effects and high costs without clinical benefit. Currently, there is no validated method for clinicians to know in advance who will respond.

Proteotype is already exploring this capability further in its UK-based INTENTION study, which is evaluating the blood test's predictive power in the adjuvant setting—when therapy is given after initial treatment to prevent recurrence. The new project within the HER-CARE network will expand on this foundation. As part of the initiative, Proteotype will recruit a doctoral candidate for a three-year PhD project focused on validating these proteomic biomarkers for both early detection and predicting response to neoadjuvant therapies, which are administered before surgery.

Forging Europe's Next Generation of Researchers

Proteotype's selection places it among an elite consortium of academic, clinical, and industry leaders, including the Karolinska Institutet, University of Cambridge, Institute of Cancer Research (London), and the Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI), which coordinates the HER-CARE project. The initiative is funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe programme under the highly prestigious Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions.

Gaining entry into an MSCA Doctoral Network is a mark of exceptional scientific merit. These networks are fiercely competitive; the 2025 call for proposals had an overall success rate of just 8.8%, making Proteotype's inclusion a significant endorsement of its research and development capabilities.

The HER-CARE network will fund and train a cohort of 15 doctoral candidates across Europe, equipping them with interdisciplinary skills spanning genomics, proteomics, imaging, and data science. The goal is to create a new generation of innovators capable of translating complex research into tangible clinical benefits. The PhD candidate at Proteotype will be employed by the company but enrolled at the Medical University of Vienna, fostering a powerful link between industrial innovation and academic rigor under the supervision of Dr. Yen Tan and Dr. Klaus Kratochwill, a leading proteomics researcher at the university.

A Stamp of Approval in a Competitive Field

For Proteotype Diagnostics, this partnership is more than a research grant; it is a strategic validation that elevates its standing in the crowded and competitive field of cancer diagnostics. While liquid biopsies focused on circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) have garnered significant attention, proteomics—the large-scale study of proteins—is emerging as a powerful complementary field. Because proteins are the functional workhorses of cells, their signatures can provide a real-time snapshot of disease activity that genetic information alone cannot capture.

The collaboration allows the Cambridge firm to integrate its unique host-response technology into a broader, multi-modal European research framework, testing its utility alongside genomic, imaging, and clinical data.

Dr. Emma Yates, co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Proteotype Diagnostics, commented on the significance of the collaboration. "We're delighted to join the HER-CARE doctoral network and to work closely with leading academic partners such as the Medical University of Vienna," she said. "This project represents an important step in advancing our proteomic biomarker platform, with the goal of improving early cancer detection and enabling more precise, data-driven treatment decisions."

This sentiment was echoed by her academic counterpart. "This collaboration provides an important opportunity to integrate advanced proteomic biomarkers with clinical and epidemiological data to improve prediction of treatment response in early breast cancer," stated Dr. Yen Tan of the Medical University of Vienna. "By aligning academic insight with industry innovation, we can accelerate the translation of these approaches into clinically meaningful strategies for personalised patient care."

Recruitment for the PhD position is now underway, with the project slated to begin in autumn 2026. The work conducted through this European partnership could pave the way for a new paradigm in oncology, where a simple blood test can not only find cancer earlier but also guide clinicians to the right treatment for the right patient from the very start.