Breast cancer (BCa) is the most common cancer in women worldwide with 2.1M new cases diagnosed annually, and this number is expected to double in 2030. However, today’s diagnostic tests lack precision and, as a result, many BCa patients are misdiagnosed then treated inaccurately, putting their lives at risk while creating undue problems for families and healthcare systems. MultiplexDX (a leading Slovak biotechnology company) proposes a personalized and precise diagnostic test for early and late stage BCa called Multiplex8+. The test combines two IP-protected, revolutionary and multiplexed cancer diagnostic technologies, visualization (RNA FISH) and RNA sequencing. By combining the two technologies to eliminate misdiagnosis, Multiplex8+ defines a specific BCa barcode that suggests a specific personalized treatment, length of therapy and clarifies how likely will a BCa patient benefit from chemotherapy or not. There are 2 main objectives of this project: 1. Establish an ISO-15189 accredited laboratory to provide diagnostic services to cancer centers (B2B) and additionally to patients (B2C). A clinical validation on 4 000 tissue samples will be conducted to obtain clinically-based evidence; 2. Build the first successful high-value biotech company in Slovakia. The company has already raised €2,05M in seed investments and grants and started sales of subproducts generating €300k in revenues since 2016. MultiplexDX is operating in the Comenius University Science Park in Bratislava and consists of 17 team members, 5 business and 7 scientific advisors. Our planned accumulated revenues in the first 5 years are €305,3M, generating a net profit of €133,0M and representing a ROI of 10,3. Importantly, Multiplex8+ is supported by the entire oncology value chain (patient associations, cancer centers, hospitals, KOLs, insurance companies, pharma/medtech, clinical laboratories, biobanks, investors, etc.).

More than 55 million people worldwide suffer from dementia. Alzheimer disease (AD) is the main cause of this fatal disorder, without any effective disease modifying therapy. Early diagnosis and lifestyle modifications can significantly reduce the costs of care and treatment. There is no conceptual plan implementing modern diagnostic methods in the clinical practice in Czechia and Slovakia. The interaction between universities and private sector developing molecular diagnostic tools is fragmented and lacking. Limited number of talented students are invested in applied AD-focused research. The aim of ADDIT-CE is to interlink two ecosystems in Brno and Bratislava region, embracing the full quadruple helix of innovation driving actors: excellent scientific teams from Masaryk University and Slovak Academy of Sciences, collaborating with top biotech companies: Geneton, BioVendor, and MultiplexDX. Societal actors will be represented by organisations such as Slovak and Czech Alzheimer Societies, Memory Center and Czech Brain Aging Study. The regional government will be involved via Ministry of Health Slovak Republic, and South Moravian Innovation Centre. The joined ecosystems will unite R&I activities focusing on new diagnostic methods and their applications and further interlink academia and business spheres by creating a pilot industrial PhD programme. ADDIT-CE will generate a joint cross-border strategy covering basic and applied research activities aiming on accelerating the development of new tools for preclinical AD diagnostics and lifestyle/pharmacological intervention monitoring. New cutting-edge technologies will be transferred into clinical practise. Results of ADDIT-CE will be used to develop the Slovak National Plan to Combat Dementia, to enrich the Czech National Plan for AD, and will be widely disseminated to end users and society. ADDIT-CE will join forces of the involved ecosystems to revolutionise diagnostic approaches in both countries.