SebOMIX: Parkinson’s Disease Testing Spin out company

Narrative

Parkinson’s Disease is the second most common age-related neurodenerative, with over 20 million people expected to be living with the disease by 2040. Currently, there are no definitive tests availabe to diagnose Parkinson’s. Instead, diagnosis is based on the onset of physical symptoms such as tremors and muscle stiffness and 35% of patients are misdiagnosed with Parkinson’s when they are in fact suffereing from a different illness.
A team of researchers at the University of Manchester have developed a way to test for Parkinson’s Disease before the onset of symptoms by using unique chemical secretions found on the skin. This work is being commercialised via a new spinout company called SebOMIX, established by Professor Perdita Barran, who heads the research group at the University.
The test involves swabbing the oily secretions found on the skin and testing them for specific chemicals associated with Parkinson’s Disease. This non-invasive test can be used to confirm previous Parkinson’s diagnoses as well as diagnose new patients long before symptoms appear. Disease confirmation and early diagnosis of the disease will help clinicians to implement appropriate and effective treatment plans.
The company plans to roll out a several services including their own clinical testing service, hosting a testing platform and providing 3rd party sample collection kits for use in research and clinical labs.
SebOMIX will initially start with a central testing laboratory in the UK, with plans to expand into the EU and United States.

Category of impact	Health and wellbeing, Economic
Impact level	Engagement