From bench to cartridge: Marja Tiirola on building BiopSense and scaling liquid biopsy in Europe

For the International Day of Women and Girls in Science on 11 February, Marja Tiirola, a biology professor at the University of Jyväskylä and EIC Ambassador, reflects on a career that moved from curiosity driven molecular microbiology to founding a MedTech company. Her start-up BiopSense aims to make blood based diagnostics more robust and widely available by automating sample preparation and stabilising nucleic acids for liquid biopsy. The project has been supported by European Innovation Council mechanisms and Horizon Europe funding as it attempts to bridge laboratory discovery and clinical application.

A scientist's path: enthusiasm, sequencing and new questions

Tiirola traced her interest in molecular biology back to postgraduate work. After an MSc in Agriculture and Forestry she secured a PhD grant focused on DNA based microbiome analysis. Early years in a busy laboratory required rapid self training in biochemistry and experimental techniques. She describes the sensory rewards of molecular work. Visualising DNA fragments or bacterial colonies provided clear feedback after many failed trials. Advances in sequencing technology, she says, represented a pivotal change. The arrival of next generation sequencing multiplied data yields and transformed the kinds of questions researchers could ask about microbiomes and molecular processes.

From curiosity to commercial venture

That surge in sequencing capability also nudged Tiirola toward thinking about other applications. Her route to founding BiopSense was not linear but cumulative. Innovations, grant projects and early prototypes moving from ERC Consolidator and proof of concept awards helped generate intellectual property and technical know how. The company focuses on a practical barrier in blood based diagnostics that often determines whether a test is reliable and deployable in routine care.

The technical problem BiopSense targets

BiopSense argues that the promise of liquid biopsy is undermined by practical pre-analytical issues. Standard workflows require careful plasma separation using centrifugation and cold chain logistics. Delays between sampling and processing allow white blood cells to break down, releasing genomic DNA that dilutes or contaminates the cell free fraction and therefore reduces sensitivity for tumour derived signals. Manual preparation steps also introduce variability and human error, which matters because tumour derived fragments can be a tiny fraction of the total cell free DNA.

The BiopSense proposition

BiopSense says it has invented an automated cartridge that can extract cell free nucleic acids from larger volumes of blood, up to 10 millilitres, in less than an hour without centrifugation or manual steps. The company promotes minimal hands on time, low training needs and stabilised samples suitable for shipping. If the claims are validated and the device secures regulatory approval, the technology could reduce the dependency on skilled laboratory staff at sample collection sites and relax cold chain requirements for some workflows.

Those advantages address recognised pain points. The start up cites a review and its internal analysis showing many studies flagging sample processing as a limiting factor for liquid biopsy performance. Yet the path between a functioning cartridge in a lab or pilot and routine clinical deployment is long. Standardisation, reproducibility, and clinical validation across diverse settings remain necessary. Independent evaluations and regulatory review are needed to substantiate yield and quality claims in real world use.

Funding, partnerships and the European innovation landscape

BiopSense was born out of university research at the University of Jyväskylä and counts a multidisciplinary founding team with expertise in nanoscience, oncology, software and mechanical engineering. The company reports cooperation with the European Innovation Council, Business Finland and the local startup factory. The BiopSense website notes funding via the Horizon Europe programme under grant agreement number 101057941 and references EIC Transition support. These instruments form part of the EU innovation ecosystem that combines grants, prizes and scale up mechanisms to move technologies from lab to market.

The European Innovation Council ecosystem is geared to support high risk innovations that need expensive validation and regulatory steps. Transition grants aim to move promising research towards prototype development and market readiness. In practice these awards do not replace the requirements for clinical trials or conformity assessment under medical device regulation. They can however be useful to cover intermediate development stages and to attract private investment if the results are promising.

Team, clinical engagement and next steps

BiopSense lists a compact core team and clinical connections. Juha Kononen is named as Medical Director and a key opinion leader in liquid biopsy tools. The team includes expertise across product design, molecular biology and software. Tiirola is pushing the BiopSense technology forward while also coordinating an EIC Transition project. She and colleagues are working toward proof of concept and are pursuing further funding to progress companion diagnostics and drug selection tools that would intersect with clinical decision making.

Gender, mentorship and the culture of science

Tiirola reflects openly on gender dynamics in academia. She recounts temporary exclusionary behaviours, such as a superior who selected only male colleagues to join informal coffee discussions where short term opportunities were often agreed. She sees increasing female leadership as a corrective but stresses active support for female colleagues to offset ingrained informal networks. Role models matter to her. She cites a younger colleague, Dr. Päivi Saavalainen, who is developing spatial transcriptomics technology and serves as a source of mutual encouragement.

On work life balance she is candid. Running an academic group, teaching and founding a company creates pressure and the potential for burnout. She recommends organisation and will as the foundation for achieving goals and shares a piece of advice posted beside her office. The note reads in translation that the most important factor in achieving goals is will. The one who wants finds the means. The one who does not wants invents explanations.

A measured outlook and open questions

BiopSense presents a plausible solution to a recognised bottleneck in liquid biopsy. Automation and stabilisation of pre-analytical steps would lower the barrier for broader use of blood based diagnostics. At the same time claims on processing speed, volumes and stabilisation should be validated by independent studies and by regulatory scrutiny. The company has received EU support and national partnerships that are relevant for early scale up. Yet the most consequential steps still lie ahead. Clinical validation across tumour types, robust comparative studies against established workflows and conformity to medical device rules will determine whether the technology moves from promising prototype to widely adopted product.

What this means for the European innovation ecosystem

The story illustrates the typical pipeline in European research driven innovation. University research, ERC and other grants create inventions. EIC Transition and Horizon Europe funding can help bridge to prototyping and early commercial steps. National agencies and local incubators provide complementary support. But for health technologies the pathway includes additional demands. Europe needs sustained public and private investment to run clinical trials and to absorb regulatory complexity if the region wants to convert basic science into competitive medtech companies. The experience of BiopSense underscores that support mechanisms are useful but not sufficient to guarantee market uptake.

Advice for women entering science

Tiirola encourages young women to plan and organise their careers and to prioritise will over excuses. She emphasizes building supportive professional networks and seeking role models. At the same time she warns that academic and entrepreneurial careers require sustained effort and resilience, and that bringing diagnostics into clinical practice requires not only scientific creativity but also persistence through long, often bureaucratic processes.

Her testimony blends technical optimism about the potential of liquid biopsy with a pragmatic view of the obstacles ahead. That balance is common among researchers who become entrepreneurs. The EU innovation system offers pathways and funding but the long arc from discovery to patient benefit remains expensive and uncertain.