Transforming renal cancer diagnostics
Kidney cancer is often detected too late.
Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) accounts for more than 90% of all kidney cancers. Incidence has been rising steadily across most high-income countries – largely driven by wider use of abdominal imaging, which incidentally detects small, asymptomatic renal masses. Yet unlike prostate or bladder cancer, no dedicated molecular diagnostic test exists to distinguish malignant from benign findings, or to monitor disease non-invasively after treatment.
Other urological cancers have molecular tests. Kidney cancer does not.
Prostate cancer
✓ PSA blood test
✓ Genomic urine-based tests
✓ Liquid biopsy assays
Bladder cancer
✓ FDA-cleared urine biomarker tests
✓ Molecular cytology assays
Kidney cancer
✗ NO APPROVED NON-INVASIVE MOLECULAR TEST
✗ No test for early disease detection
✗ No test for monitoring after surgery
✗ No test for therapy response prediction
A non-invasive molecular test designed for existing laboratory workflows
Urine-based
No biopsy or invasive procedure required
Epigenetic biomarkers
detects tumor-specific DNA methylation signatures
Non-invasive
simple sample collection, patient-friendly
Compatible with qPCR-based infrastructure
deployable in labs that already run standard PCR equipment
Clinicians and scientists behind EpiRenex
Agnė Vaitkevičienė
20+ years of experience in biotechnology, life sciences industry leadership, R&D commercialization, business development and scaling biotech ventures.
Dr. Raimonda
Kubiliūtė-Mikalauskienė
Cancer genetics and epigenetics expert with 10+ years of research experience, specializing in DNA methylation biomarkers and non-invasive renal cancer diagnostics.
Dokt. Dalia Jurkėnaitė
PhD researcher specializing in epigenetic biomarkers for early non-invasive renal cancer diagnostics and monitoring.
Irma Kurtinaitytė
Project Manager with 6+ years of experience in project management and implementation within the biotechnology and life sciences sector.
Vytenis Vaitkevičius
Leads operations and business development at Avaitis: partnerships, international funding applications and investor outreach for biotech ventures.
Prof. Sonata Jarmalaitė
Internationally experienced expert in molecular mechanisms of cancer, cancer diagnostics and biomarkers, with 35+ years of research in oncogenetics and epigenetics and scientific expert roles for national and international institutions.
Dr. Albertas Ulys
Urologist and uro-oncology expert with 35+ years of clinical and research experience in urological cancers and extensive experience as a principal investigator in clinical trials.