Owlstone Medical Wins up to $49.1 Million Award from ARPA-H to Develop At-home Multi-Cancer-Early Detection Tests

Published on: 6 Oct 2025

  • Goal of POSEIDON is to enable accurate, low-cost, accessible cancer screening for all Americans  
  • Program to deliver first-in-class synthetic-sensor based MCED test for Stage I detection of 30+ solid tumors 
  • Owlstone to work in partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston University, Georgia Tech Research Corporation, Qurin B.V., and Planned Systems International Inc. 

Cambridge, October 6th, 2025: Owlstone Medical (“Owlstone”), the global leader in Breath Biopsy® for applications in early disease detection and precision medicine, today announced that it has won an award of up to $49.1 million from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, (ARPA-H) for the Platform Optimizing SynBio for Early Intervention and Detection in Oncology (POSEIDON) program. POSEIDON aims to develop first-in-class synthetic-sensor based Multi-Cancer-Early Detection (MCED) tests for Stage I detection of 30+ solid tumors using only breath and urine samples that can be performed in the home and are available over the counter.  

Almost 40% of Americans will develop cancer in their lifetimes and cancer is the second leading cause of death in the U.S. The number of new cancer diagnoses in 2025 is estimated to be more than 2 million, with over 618,000 cancer deaths, equivalent to almost 1,700 deaths every day. The patient-related economic burden of cancer in 2019 was more than $21 billion in the U.S., of which treatment costs are by far the largest component. Critically, costs associated with late-stage diagnoses are much higher than early-stage, however cancer is difficult to detect early when it is most curable. 

Drastically reducing late-stage diagnoses by detecting cancer at Stage I would not only increase treatment effectiveness, but also significantly reduce cancer care costs, restoring up to $2.3 trillion to the U.S. economy. Currently available screening technologies are unable to address this need due to performance limitations, and many Americans are too remote to access clinic and hospital-based screening programs. While emerging technologies such as liquid biopsy hold great promise for later stage cancer detection and to help guide therapy selection, performance in early-stage cancer detection has been insufficient.  

Owlstone’s project, in partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston University, Georgia Tech Research Corporation, Qurin B.V., and Planned Systems International Inc, aims to overcome this challenge by delivering accurate, low-cost cancer screening for 30+ solid tumors to Americans aged 18 and older.  

The project involves the inhalation of a mix of pan-cancer and tumor-specific synthetic sensors from a single-use inhaler, which then circulate throughout the body and accumulate on the surface of cancer cells. The reporters produced by the sensors are either DNA-based which act as a readable barcode, or a set of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), supporting the detection of 36 cancers in total. These will be collected at-home or in clinic in urine samples and from breath respectively using portable collection and analysis devices. Results will be uploadable real-time to electronic health records (EHR) for rapid review by healthcare professionals, integrating seamlessly into clinical practice and digitally enabled care. 

This unique approach offers significant advantages over competing technologies. These include boosting the signal to enhance test performance such that cancer is reliably detectable from early stage, enabling simple and non-invasive sample collection at home, rapid result generation and EHR integration, and a low-cost manufacturing model such that economics are not a barrier to adoption of the technology as the new standard of care for early cancer detection.  

“The field of cancer screening needs a revolution, and POSEIDON stands ready to deliver. The program allows for a better future by creating broadly accessible, at-home tests that will accurately detect 30+ cancers as early as Stage I, when tumors are still small and the chances of survival are high,” said POSEIDON Program Manager Ross Uhrich, DMD, MBA. “This revolutionary funding effort brings together experts in synthetic biology, oncology, medical devices, big cancer data, and commercialization to create test kits that will transform how and when people are screened for cancer. POSEIDON will allow every American the opportunity to test themselves long before they have symptoms and at their discretion. POSEIDON’s rigorous performance metrics and translational focus reflect our clear commitment to bring these technologies safely and directly to all Americans.” 

Billy Boyle, co-founder and CEO at Owlstone Medical, said: “Access to an accurate and low-cost MCED test that does not require a doctor’s visit or laboratory testing is key to preventing late-stage diagnoses. This award validates both breath as a diagnostic approach and Owlstone’s EVOC® probes as a reporter technology to overcome the shortcomings and challenges that have held back early cancer detection previously. We are grateful to ARPA-H for the opportunity to bring transformative MCED testing to every American within the next decade.”  

ENDS 

 

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About Owlstone Medical: 

Owlstone Medical’s vision is to save 100,000 lives by realizing the enormous promise of breath-based diagnostics through the development and application of Breath Biopsy®, a unique platform capable of both biomarker discovery and use in routine clinical testing. The platform includes the Breath Biopsy VOC Atlas, the most extensive catalogue of identified volatile organic compounds (VOCs) commonly found on breath. The Company’s technology is protected by over 160 granted and pending patents and has been used in more 100 research papers. 

Owlstone Medical’s Research Products and Services are being deployed at over 100 sites around the world with large pharmaceutical companies and leading academic institutions, and the company has partnered with the Gates Foundation, the U.S. Department of Defense, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, and the FDA. Projects are supported by Breath Biopsy OMNI®, the most advanced solution for reliable end-to-end global breath VOC analysis, which is helping researchers advance biomarker discovery and disease research and maximizing the chances of finding clinically relevant breath biomarkers.   

The Company has a portfolio of Breath Biopsy tests in development for the early detection of lung cancer and liver disease, both areas of high unmet clinical need that represent multi-billion dollar market opportunities. In digestive health, under the OMED Health brand, Owlstone has launched the OMED Health Breath Analyzer, and an associated app that allows for regular tracking of diet and lifestyle factors. In Great Britain, the OMED offer includes doctor-led OMED Health Plans, personalized treatments and services to help patients gain control of their functional gastrointestinal conditions. 

 

What is Breath Biopsy®:  

Breath Biopsy represents an entirely new way to determine the chemical makeup of breath by measuring volatile organic compounds (VOCs), gaseous molecules that can be sampled quickly and non-invasively. VOCs originate from all parts of the body as the end product of metabolic processes, making Breath Biopsy applicable to a wide range of diseases including lung cancer, liver disease, and digestive disease. The nature of Breath Biopsy therefore makes it perfectly suited to addressing two of the major challenges of healthcare today: early detection of disease and precision medicine.