Early detection of all cancers with a single blood test

A tumor that has formed somewhere can be detected even if it is too small to cause symptoms. This is considered a breakthrough technology, both invested by Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates.

What happens when a simple blood test can detect any early signs of cancer? It sounds like a technology that doesn't belong to our century, but Illumina, a $ 24 billion company based in San Diego, is looking to realize this test in the next few years.

Early detection of all types of cancer with only one blood test.

Illumina was founded in 1998 and is one of the pioneering biotech companies in the field of cheap DNA sequencing. In 2014, Illumina was ranked by MIT Technology Review as the world's smartest company. The company's annual profit comes from selling equipment and chemicals up to $ 2 billion per year.

With his new project related to cancer diagnosis with just a blood test , Illumina will start a $ 100 million start-up called GRAIL . As its name suggests, such a test if successful will become a "holy grail" for all doctors diagnosing cancer.

The majority of GRAIL shares will be held by Illumina. Besides, this new company also attracted the support of many other shareholders such as Sutter Hill Ventures, ARCH Ventures, Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates.

Although only in the start-up phase, GRAIL is promised to start a new billion-dollar industry. This milestone will be hugely significant for the medical and social economy if GRAIL realizes its goals.

Illumina, the world's largest DNA sequencing company.

"We will direct all resources into a universal test to detect cancer," said Jay Flatley, Illumina's chief executive. For 16 years in his position, he has made a great contribution in promoting DNA sequencing to outpace Moore's Law in the semiconductor industry.

Flatley revealed the idea of ​​establishing a GRAIL was rekindled 18 months ago. They will use a technology called "liquid biopsy". A high-speed DNA sequencing machine will test blood samples with DNA fragments of cancer cells. In this way they can detect tumors that have formed somewhere even if it is too small to cause symptoms or be observed with diagnostic imaging.

A researcher is operating Illumina's DNA decoding device.

"It's our biggest investment so far," said Robert Nelsen from ARCH. Nelsen was formerly one of Illumina's earliest investors. More recently, he has promoted two start-up companies: Juno Therapeutics operates in the field of cancer up to $ 310 million before the IPO and $ 217 million for Denali Therapeutics focusing on brain diseases.

Talking about the potential of GRAIL, Nelsen affirmed: "We still need time to prove this method. However, you will definitely know as much information as possible about many types of cancer with a single test. most we develop ".

To convince GRAIL shareholders including Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates, Flatley said he would spend millions of dollars on clinical trials of more than 30,000 people. It is estimated that the number of tests required is equivalent to decoding the sequence of 400,000 people in high quality."We believe that no one else can do this except Illumina," Flatley said.