Skip to main content
Premium Trial:

Request an Annual Quote

Previse Awarded $1.8M NIH Grant to Develop Esophageal Cancer Test

NEW YORK – Gastrointestinal health firm Previse said Tuesday that it has been awarded a $1.8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health for the development and commercialization of an esophageal cancer screening test.

The Maryland-based company said that the Small Business Technology Transfer grant from the NIH National Cancer Institute will support a research collaboration with the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and studies at clinical sites in East Africa toward the development of a non-endoscopic screening test for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. The funding also will support the commercialization of the test in the US and help the firm establish a commercialization pathway in East Africa.

The firm noted that esophageal squamous cell carcinoma causes more than 80 percent of esophageal cancer deaths worldwide and about one-third of esophageal cancer cases in the US, with higher frequency among Asian and Black populations.

Previse, formerly known as Capsulomics, is a Johns Hopkins spinout that launched in 2023. Its Esopredict epigenetic is a risk stratification test for Barrett's esophagus, which is a precursor condition to esophageal cancer. The test is a laboratory-developed, PCR-based assay to measure in tissue biopsy samples the DNA methylation of four genes, and the results are analyzed with an algorithm to generate a score for the risk that a patient with precancerous Barrett's esophagus will progress to high-grade dysplasia or esophageal adenocarcinoma.

The firm recently published clinical validation study results that could be used to support the inclusion of the firm's test in clinical care guidelines.