Interfibio recognised as a 'key innovator' by the EU Innovation Radar

EU’s Innovation Radar has recognised Interfibio group from Universitat Rovira i Virgili as a 'key innovator' in development of the innovation:

Combined proteomic/genomic electrochemical sensor, fabricated with screen printing technology for identification of individuals with cervical cancer 

This innovation has been developped in the the framework of the EU-funded Research & Innovation project ELEVATE. The Innovation Radar identified this innovation as business ready and in addition mentions that it has potential to contribute to standardisation.

The EU-funded Research Project: ELEVATE

This innovation was developed under the Horizon 2020 project ELEVATE with an end date of 31/12/2024.

Cervical cancer is the 4th most common cancer in women worlThe ELEVATE project sets a multidisciplinary team comprising manufactures and experts from Europe and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, to improve the global adequacy and coverage of cervical cancer screening, particularly to specific populations of women that by not being regularly screened (hard-to-reach populations) are at higher-risk to develop cervical cancer. Although Cervical cancer is still the fourth most common cancer in women worldwide, with up to 85% of the burden occurring in developing countries, preventive vaccination against human papillomavirus and early detection of precancer in screening programs has shown to be successful in reducing cancer incidence and mortality.1-3 However, different challenges hamper a global implementation of such programs and are in the base of women's non-attendance to screening. This highlights the lack of reflection of ethnic, cultural and resource differences from different populations in current cervical cancer screening. In ELEVATE it is proposed to conduct social science investigations to identify hard-to-reach women in Belgium, Brazil, Ecuador and Portugal, to address their barriers to screening and to design strategies to make primary screening more accessible to them, and therefore, contribute to reduce the global burden of cervical cancer. This will be complemented with fundamental and technological research to develop an efficient and marketable test for the combined genomic and proteomic detection of high-risk HPV infections in those populations. The test will be made portable, low-cost, compatible with self-sampling, point-of-care and generate rapid and easy-to-understand results, without relying on electrical outlets or trained health personnel. Integrant part of the proposal is also to infer and disseminate the societal, economic implications of the developed strategies using a hard-to-reach community-based participatory research.

This innovation contributes to the following SDG(s)

• SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOAL 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages
• SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOAL 9: Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation

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