Reading cancer's hidden signals.
One molecule at a time.
A single-molecule imaging platform that captures the regulatory state of millions of individual nucleosomes circulating in blood, opening a new dimension of non-invasive cancer diagnostics.
Meet EPINUC™
A sensitive, non-invasive way to read cancer's regulatory fingerprint directly from a small blood sample — no DNA sequencing required.
A single-molecule imaging platform that reads chemical marks on individual nucleosomes circulating in blood — quantitatively, reproducibly, and from less than 1 mL of plasma.
Cancer is more than a disease of mutations. Long before the genetic code is broken, tumor cells reprogram how their DNA is packaged and controlled — flipping the on/off switches that govern gene activity. These regulatory marks (technically, histone post-translational modifications, or PTMs) are like a software layer running on top of the genetic hardware. EPINUC reads that software, directly from blood, with single-molecule precision.
How It Works: Three Steps
From blood draw to digital readout — a single tube of plasma becomes millions of individually measured molecules.
Capture
Cell-free nucleosomes — naturally shed by cells into the bloodstream — are isolated from a small plasma sample. A proprietary one-step reaction fluorescently tags each nucleosome and attaches a molecular "handle" (a poly-A tail) for the next step.
Immobilize
Each tagged nucleosome is locked into a fixed position on a glass surface engineered with complementary "anchors" (a poly-T coating). Millions of individual nucleosomes are now laid out in a single field of view — each one separately countable.
Decode
Color-coded antibodies — each one designed to recognize a specific regulatory mark — are washed across the surface. A high-resolution microscope (TIRF) records every binding event in real time, building a complete profile molecule by molecule.
What We Measure
A curated set of regulatory marks — the master switches that control gene activity — read directly from circulating nucleosomes to reconstruct the biology of the cells they came from.
| Mark(s) Measured | What It Tells Us |
|---|---|
| H3K4me3 + H3K27me3 | Bivalent chromatin: the simultaneous presence of "go" and "stop" signals on the same nucleosome — a hallmark of cancer and stem-cell biology that only single-molecule analysis can resolve. |
| H3K9ac | Active gene expression: indicates that a region of DNA is being actively read by the cell. |
| …and more | Broad regulatory profiling: 6+ distinct marks per run, capturing everything from local enhancer activity to long-term gene silencing. |
Because each nucleosome is imaged individually — using Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence (TIRF) microscopy — every run unlocks three layers of information that bulk sequencing cannot deliver:
Absolute Counts
Direct, digital quantification of each mark on each nucleosome — no PCR, no averaging, no inference.
Ratios
The balance between activating and silencing marks (e.g., H3K4me3 vs. H3K27me3) — a powerful disease signature.
Combinatorial Patterns
Identifies single nucleosomes carrying two marks at once — the bivalent signatures highlighted above. A measurement no other platform delivers.
Why It Matters
A critical blind spot in today's liquid biopsy landscape — one that DNA sequencing alone cannot address.
Works With a Routine Blood Draw
Requires less than 1 mL of plasma — no special collection tubes, no large-volume draws. Fits seamlessly into existing clinical workflows.
Single-Molecule Precision
Every data point is a directly counted molecule — no amplification bias, no ensemble averaging. Digital, quantitative, and reproducible by design.
Multi-Dimensional By Design
Six regulatory marks plus their combinations — all captured in a single run. A true multi-dimensional fingerprint of disease biology.
Sensitive at the Earliest Stages
Detects cancer-specific signals in Stage I–II disease, where DNA-based liquid biopsies often fall below detection thresholds.
Complementary, Not Competitive
Because we read regulatory signals — not genetic mutations — our platform layers on top of existing liquid biopsy tests. The result: an additional, orthogonal layer of diagnostic intelligence for screening, trial enrichment, and longitudinal monitoring.
Validated in a Clinical Cohort
In a landmark study published in Nature Biotechnology (Fedyuk et al., 2022), our approach was applied to plasma samples from cancer patients and healthy controls — and accurately distinguished the two, including at early stages of disease.
Key Findings
- High accuracy in distinguishing cancer from healthy samples — including early-stage disease (AUC 0.96 for colorectal cancer detection).
- Cancer-type-specific signatures: colorectal and pancreatic cancers separated cleanly based on their regulatory profiles alone — without any DNA sequencing.
- Bivalent nucleosomes (carrying both H3K4me3 and H3K27me3) were significantly elevated in cancer — a novel biomarker class only visible through single-molecule analysis.
- Stage I–II detection: regulatory changes were measurable at early stages, before substantial tumor DNA had been shed into circulation.
A New Diagnostic Layer for Precision Oncology
A high-resolution, single-molecule window into the regulatory state of cells circulating in blood — revealing information that DNA sequencing alone cannot see.
Earlier detection. Deeper cancer profiling. Longitudinal monitoring. All from a routine blood draw.
A new dimension of cancer intelligence.