Staying ahead of the technology curve means strengthening your competitive advantage. That is why we give you data-driven innovation insights into the healthcare industry. This time, you get to discover 5 hand-picked startups tackling melanoma.
Global Startup Heat Map: 5 Top Startups Tackling Melanoma
The 5 healthcare startups you will explore below are chosen based on our data-driven startup scouting approach, taking into account factors such as location, founding year, and relevance of technology, among others. This analysis is based on the Big Data & Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered StartUs Insights Discovery Platform, covering over 1.3 million startups & scaleups globally.
The Global Startup Heat Map below highlights the 5 pharma startups & scaleups our Innovation Researchers curated for this report. Moreover, you get insights into regions that observe a high startup activity and the global geographic distribution of the 125 companies we analyzed for this specific topic.
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AMLo Biosciences – Protein Markers
A major cause for melanoma is overexposure to ultraviolet (UV) light either naturally or from the use of tanning beds. Malignant melanoma is highly aggressive and BioTech advances enable medical professionals to identify and treat this disease at the earliest stage possible. To further advance this effort, startups identify and target specific protein markers in metastasized tumor cells to stop the progression of melanoma in its tracks.
British startup AMLo Biosciences is developing a prognostic test for detecting stage 1 and stage 2 melanoma. The startup’s test, AMBLor, is based on two protein markers, AMBRA1, and loricrin, that usually exist in the epidermis. AMBLor is a fairly simple prognostic test that integrates seamlessly with current diagnostic protocols. Moreover, the digital analysis of the AMBLor test is simple, easy to interpret, and has a quick turnaround time. This helps medical professionals to conduct further investigations such as sentinel lymph node biopsy if necessary.
Checkmate Pharmaceuticals – Immuno-Oncology
Checkpoint inhibitors and other immunotherapy drugs activate the T cell response in the immune system. BioTech advancements give way to artificially stimulate the immune system to specifically target tumors and cancerous cells. These immuno-oncological solutions enable doctors to provide effective healthcare to patients suffering from advanced stages of melanoma. Startups develop new drugs that target specific receptor pathways in the immune system to effectively treat melanoma.
The US-based startup Checkmate Pharmaceuticals leverages immuno-oncological therapeutics to develop drugs for refractory, neoadjuvant, and front-line melanoma. The startup’s lead drug candidate, CMP-001, is potent and highly selective. Moreover, it acts as an advanced biological construct that enters solid tumor cells and activates the TLR9 receptor in the immune system of patients with skin cancer. CMP-001 is effective in cases where the tumor is resistant to checkpoint inhibitors and has the potential to innately activate the immune system to fight the tumor.
Geneseq Biosciences – Liquid Biopsies
One way to identify circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in the body is to leverage liquid biopsy diagnostics. Liquid biopsy is a considerably less invasive diagnostic test in comparison to tissue biopsy for identifying cancer cell presence from blood samples. Melanoma and other types of skin cancer are treatable when diagnosed in their early stages. Startups develop precision oncology solutions to improve clinical decision making in cancer treatments.
Australian startup Geneseq Biosciences offers liquid biopsy testing solutions for medical professionals to identify skin cancer in patients. The startup’s product Melseq measures 38 microRNAs that have key functionality both inside and outside of cells. Detecting the microRNAs in disease-specific combinations enables them to be accurate in differentiating between healthy and cancerous cells. As a result, the startup is ideally placed to identify the genetic fingerprint of melanoma.
AiVita Biomedical – Personalized Stem Cell Therapies
Cell therapy advancements over the years, such as stem cell therapies, help treat melanoma, lung cancer, brain cancer, colorectal cancer, and breast cancer. Studies have shown that stem cells are able to carry both cancer drugs and genes to target tumors. To that end, startups develop personalized stem cell therapies for patients suffering from melanoma.
The US-based startup AiVita Biomedical creates personalized stem cell therapy solutions to tackle multiple cancers including melanoma, glioblastoma, and ovarian cancer. The startup’s approach enables the patient’s own immune system to identify and destroy cancer cells, including the tumor-initiating cells that are responsible for the growth and spread of the disease. For example, AiVita’s therapeutics provide the immune system with a range of neoantigens from the patient’s own tumor-initiating cells to help tackle melanoma.
ANAPIX medical – Melanoma Diagnostics
The challenge in melanoma detection is the delicate balancing of accurately identifying cancer indicators and not requiring to draw tissue biopsy samples. Minimally-invasive diagnostic advancements enable medical professionals to accurately ascertain the chances of developing melanoma. To this end, leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning algorithms to analyze scans and clinical data improve decision-making capabilities in clinicians.
French startup ANAPIX medial provides DIAMELA, a decision support algorithm to help clinicians diagnose melanoma. ANAPIX’s algorithm leverages artificial intelligence to comb through and analyze the dermoscopic photographs of melanocytic lesions. The startup also provides SKINAN, an algorithm that leverages a multi-pathology database to learn to identify melanoma-related anomalies, and a mobile application, SkinApp, that uses a smartphone camera to enable diagnostic imaging of topical skin lesions.
Discover more healthcare startups
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