NEW YORK – NIPD Genetics of Cyprus has won $1.5 million in funding from the Research & Innovation Foundation, Cyprus to develop a cancer liquid biopsy test and a preimplantation genetic test (PGT).

Specifically, the company plans to develop a circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) blood test for the detection of lung, colorectal, breast, prostate, and ovarian cancer that can be used for early cancer detection, diagnosis, disease monitoring, mutation detection for targeted therapy, minimal residual disease detection, and treatment resistance detection. The test will use and further develop the firm’s proprietary target capture technology as well as its bioinformatics tools.

In addition, NIPD Genetics plans to develop a comprehensive PGT kit with visualization and analysis software for the detection of chromosomal aneuploidies, structural rearrangements, and monogenic disorders. This test will also use the firm’s target capture technology and the company plans to develop novel statistical models and customized bioinformatics pipelines.

NIPD Genetics has been offering a cell-free DNA-based noninvasive prenatal test for fetal aneuploidies, called Veracity, since 2015. The company recently added an expanded prenatal genetic screening test and a number of hereditary and somatic cancer panel tests to its menu