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The GLASS consortium at the kick-off meeting of the project (Foto: Leitat).
 31.05.2019

The European project GLAM develops a multiplexed biosensor for personalized diagnosis and therapy for bladder cancers

A European consortium led by Centre Tecnològic Leitat –through its Biomed Division in the Barcelona Science Park (PCB)– has finished the GLAM project, the aim of which was to develop a photonic biosensor for a non-invasive diagnosis and personalized therapy for bladder cancers. The project involved the participation of 10 European organizations with resources and capabilities from the academia and scientific and business field, among them the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC), which is also located in PCB.

 

The european project Glass-Laser Multiplexed Biosensor (GLAM) was borned to develop in a four-year term (2015 – 2019) a new diagnostic tool to detect biomarkers from biofluids obtained in a non-invasive manner, focusing on urine and genitourinary cancers. 

During this time, the partners created a prototype of the sensor, which can detect up to 10 biomarkers in urine. The device, based on photonic and monoclonal antibody biosensor technologies, shows various advantages compared to current techniques: it is fast, ultra-sensitive, simple to use, portable, and cheap.This will help oncologists make better treatment decisions according to the patient’s needs in a non-invasive manner for bladder cancer diagnosis. Moreover, the consortium published several papers and applied for a patent.

According to Francesc Mitjans, director Health & Biomedicine Business Unit at Leitat and technical coordinator of the project: “This is a step towards truly personalized medicine in cancer. The device might allow the identification of new prognostic patterns for a better classification of patients, prognosis evaluation and treatment decision.”

GLAM had a budget of 4’835’586 euros, financed through the EU’s Horizon 2020 research programme. The project was coordinated by Leitat and involved 9 other partners from 6 different EU countries: the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) and the  Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO) in Spain, the University of Twente and Radboud University Medical Center in the Netherlands, WizSoft in Israel, the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) and Obelis S.A. in Belgium, Novelic in Serbia, and Optocap in the UK.

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