Posted on 08/13/2025 3:42:16 PM PDT by nickcarraway
OncoRedox’s AI-powered sensor analyzes plasma samples and identifies molecules associated with cancer.
Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer worldwide. While early detection significantly improves the chance of survival, traditional screening methods such as colonoscopy are costly, invasive and have low compliance rates.
Now on the horizon is an innovative platform for the detection of colorectal cancer using a simple blood sample.
The OncoRedox system is based on an AI-powered disposable electrochemical sensor that generates a metabolic fingerprint of the reduction-oxidation (redox) state, which is the process of molecules in our body communicating and exchanging electrons.
The sensor enables highly accurate disease detection through plasma samples by analyzing the molecules in the blood “like a tongue with receptors” that “recognizes the taste” of cancer, “similar to how people respond to the taste of coffee, for instance,” says OncoRedox cofounder and CTO Prof. Hadar Ben-Yoav.
Generic technology
“Cancer is built from a profile of 15 to 20 different molecules that change all the time,” notes Ben-Yoav, a member of the department of biomedical engineering at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) and head of its Nanobioelectronics Laboratory.
The professor says OncoRedox’s generic technology is “not specific to one type of disease; it is suitable for identifying other types of cancer, such as lung or bladder cancer.”
Ben-Yoav says the simplicity of the technology sets OncoRedox apart from its competitors worldwide, which focus mainly on detecting colon cancer via stool samples.
“Stool tests are five times more expensive because they’re DNA-based tests. Our method is cost-effective, with a per-test cost of goods at less than $10,” he notes.
Ben-Yoav adds that stool tests are also less convenient and “only 50% of people” agree to do them, “compared to a blood test, which is something we all are willing to do.”
10 years in the making
The research behind the OncoRedox technology was initiated at BGU more than 10 years ago. Ben-Yoav became involved in the studies after his wife was diagnosed with breast cancer.
“I remember it like it was yesterday. They tested her cancer type and told her to start this medicine that promised less than a 4% chance that the cancer would come back. It’s like chemotherapy, but with less crazy side effects,” he recalls.
Three years later, the cancer came back. “It may be only 4%, but when you’re part of this 4%, you’re 100% sick,” he notes.
Ben-Yoav himself comes from the field of diagnostics. “I did my PhD in the analytical field; I was the one developing these tests [that determined the success rate of medical solutions].”
He believed there must be a better way to diagnose cancer, as well as other diseases.
“To understand whether the cancer will come back or not, you actually have to look for a whole specific profile of molecules,” he explains.
OncoRedox
Seven years ago, Ben-Yoav — in partnership with BGU and Sheba Medical Center — began developing the idea for what officially became OncoRedox in 2022. Prof. Gal Markel, who heads the Davidoff Cancer Center at Rabin Medical Center, is another cofounder of OncoRedox and its CMO.
The vision of the final product is a home blood test that could be purchased at a pharmacy, like Covid or pregnancy tests. Abnormal results would not necessarily indicate cancer but would point to an anomaly that should be examined via colonoscopy.
Clinical proof-of-concept studies have so far demonstrated 94 percent accuracy in detecting the disease.
Ben-Yoav says he hopes to receive US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval within the next two to three years, and have a market-ready product within the next four or five years.
The stress factor
The company hopes to expand the technology to detect other types of cancer, as well as inflammatory bowel diseases including Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.
“We’ve seen a crazy increase in inflammatory bowel diseases over the past year because they’re related to stress,” Ben-Yoav tells ISRAEL21c. “There is a correlation between stress and the intestinal system.”
He says this extends to cancer, too.
“We all have cancer cells in our bodies at any given time, but the immune system takes care of them. Stress — both mental and physical – weakens the immune system and its ability to treat these cancer cells,” he explains.
To explore the connection between stress, the immune system and the chance of developing cancer, Ben-Yoav’s lab is building a chip that behaves like the gut and a chip that behaves like the brain.
“We can recreate a connection between the gut and the brain and see what happens to these organs when we’re stressed. For instance, how do the molecules released in the brain affect the gut?”
Meanwhile, he is working to advance the progress of OncoRedox.
The startup is opening a seed funding round to expand its clinical proof-of-concept studies and trials. It has so far received funding from the Israeli Innovation Authority and Peregrine Venture’s Incentive Incubator, where some of the company’s work is being conducted.
For more information on OncoRedox, click here.
She even fooled Mad Dog Jim Mattis.
Unfortunately, it isn’t available anywhere.
>The thing people don't mention is people were shoveling money at her, but they weren't the biosciences/MedTech VCs.
The Colon is a different organ than the prostate.
Did you take the Covid Vax? Just wondering
No kidding. The laxative liquid I had to drink tasted awful. Now they won’t even do colonoscopy on me. The nurse doing my pre-procedure interview told me the do not do colonoscopy after age 80. There is too much chance of perforating the bowel. But because I was in such good shape, they accepted me at age 84 (last year).
I know they are different organs. my neighbor eats total sh%t food.
My MD said I didn’t need a vax. You should have such a great MD. He prescribes almost a dozen nutritional suppleemts for me and one prescription drug. I’m 89 weigh 116. MD he said he’s never seen anyone as healthy as I am at my age. Will live to be 100. Good news for my b%tchy kitty. No one else would put up with her. I love her dearly. .
Thanks for the clarification. Well, under the current rules, my next one will be my last!
One time (of many) I had a colonoscopy, yes I’d had to go through the bowel prep that started at 12:00 noon the day before and lasted until about 6 or 7 that night. And then no food / water after midnight and until after the colonoscopy was over and I awake enough not to, well, barf the orange juice and crackers.
I have reactive hypoglycemia of unknown origin. This particular colonoscopy was set for 11 am. My blood sugar was crashing so bad that I thought I was going to pass out in the waiting room.
Another time it was set for 8:00 am but they got behind in outpatient procedures, and it was nearly 12 before I got called back. Got me in the bed, put the IV in and four minutes later I was tunnel-vision blacking-out passing out. “Help!” I yelled.
They laid me down flat and increased the fluid. Called a cardiologist. My blood pressure apparently had torpedoed.
I’m due for a colonoscopy right now. Not fancying it. I don’t even have a gastro doc right now. He’d be a newb and yes the extra cost of the newb doc / setup 1st appointment. Then the colonoscopy percentage cost with basic Medicare. I’d have to get a loan just to get the 20% the financial clerk would ask for.
I’ll just call and say look, if you’ll do this thing for free—if you really insist I need this, hey I don’t have the money. See if financial assistance will cover it 100%.
Or it just won’t happen.
Or maybe it’s just too darn dangerous to go through anyway. The last one I had, no problem. But I had to come up with $600 **SURPRISE!!** they didn’t even tell me about. That was 10+ years ago.
You had not only Biden, but Bill Clinton who wanted to get in her pants, and George Shultz’s grandson who tried to blow the whistle on her. Schultz, who as on the board, was apparently too smitten to listen and IIRC they fired the grandson. The only SME that had the balls to speak out was a female researcher at Berkeley. All the analysts were apparently too terrified of the PC/DEI bloowback they would get for calling her out. Kudos to the WSJ for finally drawing back the curtain. This story is the biggest single reason I spend the $$ to get the WSJ instead of the local Democrat shill-sheet.
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