Products.
AQ Prostate: urine-based prostate cancer screening
Every year 1,3 million new prostate cancer cases are diagnosed worldwide. And every year, hundreds of thousands prostate cancer cases are also left undiagnosed, while at the same time tens of thousands of men are overtreated for non-lethal prostate cancer. This is caused by the screening test’s ineffectiveness and low specificity towards lethal variants. The currently used screening methods often produce false positive results and miss the most dangerous cases of prostate cancer completely.
Detecting potentially lethal prostate cancer variants (Great Groups 4 and 5) in an early phase is one of the most important objectives for prostate cancer screening.
Our validated research studies and respective scientific publication shows that Aqsens Health’s E-TRF method with its biosensors can accurately screen and classify the lethal types of prostate cancer from urine samples - a long-awaited accomplishment in prostate cancer treatment.
AQ PROSTATE (preclinical and clinical validation)
AQ Bladder: urine-based bladder cancer screening
Bladder cancer is a cancerous tumor that develops in the lining of the bladder. In some cases it can also spread to the muscle surrounding the bladder. Worldwide there are nearly 600,000 new bladder cancer cases every year. Approximately 200,000 of those cases result in death.
Bladder cancer is associated with high per patient costs, which are usually upwards from 65,000 dollars per patient. These costs accumulate quickly from invasive procedures that need to be performed to assess how far the cancer has spread when it has been first detected.
Aqsens Health and Turku University Hospital have begun a proof-of-concept research study to assess the E-TRF method and its biosensors’ capability to detect and classify bladder cancer from the urine samples. Aqsens’ method has previously been able to detect and classify prostate cancer from urine samples. Aqsens Health’s R&D team believes that the same method will also be applicable to bladder cancer detection and classification.
AQ BLADDER (proof-of-concept phase)
AQ Malaria: saliva-based malaria screening
According to WHO, in 2019 nearly half of the world’s population was at risk of contracting malaria. The latest World malaria report states that in 2019 there were approximately 229 million cases. Africa is the most affected continent with over 94% of the world's malaria cases and deaths, with children and pregnant women being the highest risk groups.
Aqsens Health is developing a saliva-based malaria screening test, the AQ Malaria test, in collaboration with the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research in Accra, Ghana. The AQ Malaria test utilizes Aqsens Health's innovative phage-based biosensor is affordable, accurate and more accessible than blood based malaria screening tests. It can be easily Integrated with AQ MOBI for mobile testing and AQ EPIC for large-scale disease management.
AQ MALARIA (clinical validation phase 2024)
Ongoing projects and clinical trials
BIOURICA – a metastasis of solid tumor cancers project
In collaboration with clinical oncologist Dr. Maria Sundvall from Turku University Hospital (TYKS), Aqsens Health has built a research line to develop biosensors for urine to detect metastasis of solid tumor cancers such as breast, colorectal, prostate, kidney and bladder cancer, and melanoma.
Patient monitoring for BIOURICA started in 2023.
Malaria and other tropical diseases project in Ghana
Through collaboration with immunologist Dr. Linda Amoah and other established medical scientist from the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research in Ghana, we at Aqsens Health have had the opportunity to build a research line for saliva biosensor diagnostics to detect malaria and other neglected tropical infectious diseases at an early stage of the pathogen infection. Our biosensor for malaria (AQ Malaria) is currently in clinical validation and biosensors for tuberculosis and cholera are in the development phase. Successful field-monitoring for Malaria diagnostics was filed in July 2022.
Preliminary research and sample collection for the TB and Cholera project will begin in 2024.
BIOSALIVA – early detection of lung cancer and tuberculosis
In 2023 Aqsens Health and research teams from the Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center began a new joint project focusing on the detection of lung cancer and tuberculosis from saliva samples using Aqsens Health’s biosensors.
The project sample collection is planned for early 2024.