NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – After recently winning a five-year, $3.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles have begun developing a blood-based liquid biopsy tool to help screen for early-stage liver cancer.

The funding, provided by the National Cancer Institute, will also help the team at UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center validate and commercialize the assay as an affordable, clinical test through an early-stage startup called Early Diagnostics.