Abcodia

Abcodia is a specialist company that focuses on biomarkers for cancer screening. Its aim is to discover and validate biomarkers that can be used for the early detection of cancer. Early detection provides more treatment options and has been shown to improve survival rates. Working in collaboration with academics, technology partners and commercial diagnostic partners, Abcodia aims to dramatically improve the way cancer is detected and managed.

History

Abcodia is a spin-out from University College London and was founded in 2010. UCL granted Abcodia the exclusive commercialisation rights to a serum collection created by clinical scientists at the Institute for Women's Health at UCL. The serum biobank was formed as part of the UK Collaborative Trial of Ovarian Cancer Screening UKCTOCS, which was led by Professor Ian Jacobs and Professor Usha Menon. From 2001 to 2005, more than 202,000 women were randomly recruited onto the trial, all of whom provided a sample of blood on entry. Around 50,000 of these volunteers continued to provide samples annually until the end of 2011. All samples are stored in liquid nitrogen.