IMS is developing a world-first stratification test for Polyendocrine Metabolic Ovarian Syndrome and a more accurate diagnostic for Adrenocortical Carcinoma
Professor Wiebke Arlt is Chief Scientific Officer of IMS Solutions, and Dr Martin Whitaker is the company's CEO.
The University of Birmingham and Imperial College London have announced the launch of Intelligent Mass Spec Solutions Ltd (IMS Solutions), a new spin-out that is set to revolutionise diagnosis of conditions featuring disordered steroid hormone metabolism.
Steroid hormones orchestrate many of the body’s fundamental processes, including stress responses, metabolism, energy use, blood pressure regulation, reproduction and fertility. Consequently, conditions where steroid hormone synthesis or metabolism are disrupted often present with diffuse and diverse symptoms, making them difficult, time-consuming and costly to diagnose.
IMS Solutions’ platform technology overcomes this diagnostic challenge by detecting unique steroid signatures in urine and blood.
IMS Solutions launches with a £1.1 million Seed round led by Midlands Mindforge alongside a syndicate including SFC Capital, the UK’s Innovation and Seed Capital Fund (UKI2S - managed by Future Planet Capital), NG Bio, British Business Bank and private investors. The company is further supported by a £2.1 million grant from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) awarded to Imperial College London.
The funding will enable the company to refine, advance and launch a urine test for the early diagnosis of the rare and difficult to treat cancer Adrenocortical Carcinoma (ACC) in the UK by 2029, and develop the world’s first stratification test for Polyendocrine Metabolic Ovarian Syndrome (PMOS), the most common hormone disorder in women, which globally affects 10-15% of the female population.
IMS Solutions is launching with a strong commercial and scientific team, and a well-advanced roadmap for products that align with current demands from patients, clinicians and healthcare providers.
Priya Reddy, Investor, Midlands Mindforge said: "Women’s health conditions such as PMOS have historically been significantly underfunded and underserved, despite affecting millions of women globally. IMS has the potential to change that by enabling faster, more accurate route to diagnosis and, ultimately, better patient outcomes. We are incredibly excited to be leading this investment and supporting the IMS team as they bring this important technology to market."
IMS Solutions is a joint spin-out from the University of Birmingham and Imperial, who have provided background patent and know-how intellectual property exclusively to the company.
The technology platform was initially developed at the University of Birmingham by Professor Wiebke Arlt, who is Chief Scientific Officer at IMS Solutions. Professor Arlt, a renowned expert in steroid endocrinology, is Director of the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences (LMS), where she leads the Steroids & Metabolism research group, and Head of Department at the Institute of Clinical Sciences at Imperial College London. She also serves as the first female President of the European Society of Endocrinology.
Realising the opportunity
The first product to market will be a urine test that can discriminate between benign and malignant adrenal tumours, which are found in 5% of people undergoing a scan of the chest or abdomen. The ACCelerate™ test rapidly identifies patients requiring surgery for Adrenocortical Carcinoma (ACC) and reduces the need for surgery in patients whose adrenal tumours are eventually found to be benign.
The NIHR Invention for Innovation (i4i) Product Development Award will support Professor Arlt’s ongoing research at the LMS at Imperial’s Hammersmith Hospital Campus. The award will enable the regulatory certification and commercialisation of ACCelerate™, which consists of a unique panel of biomarkers and a machine learning algorithm trained on a retrospective data set to detect a malignant steroid fingerprint. The algorithm has already been validated prospectively in a multi-centre study that showed the test is up to four times more accurate than scans alone.
We validated the test through the largest ever adrenal cancer study, which involved over 2,000 patients from 11 countries, and this proved the test’s accuracy. The funding means we can now optimise the test and certify to current regulatory standards. In addition, we intend to show that it is also good value for money and can be reliably performed in existing NHS laboratories, without new machines or additional costs.
Unmet needs in PMOS
Polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome (PMOS), formerly known as PCOS or Polycystic Ovary Syndrome, affects much more than the ovaries. It involves multiple hormones, affects how the body processes food and energy, and comes with a significantly raised risk of long-term health conditions such as type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and fatty liver disease. This complex picture is representative of the challenges in diagnosing and treating steroid hormone related conditions and their potential for poor patient outcomes, something IMS Solutions is working to solve.
Although 10-15% of women are affected by PMOS, according to the World Health Organization, up to 70% of these are undiagnosed. There is no single test for PMOS. Diagnosis relies on matching the patient’s combination of symptoms, laboratory findings, and imaging to a set of criteria (known as the Rotterdam criteria).
The test in development by IMS Solutions is a combination of a blood test measuring biomarkers and a unique machine learning algorithm. The test is designed for use in primary care, to stratify PMOS patients for treatment and/or improved management of the condition. Following a successful proof-of-concept study a clinical validation study is in progress. The results are expected to be announced shortly, and publication is anticipated in the next six months.
We now know that PMOS is not a single disorder but that there are different PMOS subgroups, and some more than others increase the risk of metabolic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular disease. The test we are developing will be able to discern which category patients are in, and identify health risks for an individual patient, enabling earlier and improved treatment options.
About Intelligent Mass Spec Solutions
IMS Solutions is a venture capital backed, UK based company developing diagnostic solutions using advanced mass spectrometry and machine learning. Our technology analyses steroid metabolites to identify unique chemical signatures associated with conditions such as adrenocortical cancer, with the aim of allowing faster and more accurate diagnosis. Further product opportunities exist for our data-driven machine learning algorithms in women’s health, particularly in the stratification of patients identified with PMOS (polyendocrine metabolic ovary syndrome) enabling improved management and treatment options for the condition.
About Midlands Mindforge
Midlands Mindforge is an investment company established by eight universities to invest in world-leading science and technology companies from across the Midlands. Mindforge supports entrepreneurs to build and manage high-growth businesses. Supporting these high-growth companies in the Midlands creates an economic flywheel with local impact. Mindforge founding-partner universities are: Aston, Birmingham, Cranfield, Keele, Leicester, Loughborough, Nottingham, and Warwick.
About Imperial College London
We are Imperial – a world-leading university for science, technology, engineering, medicine and business (STEMB), where scientific imagination leads to world-changing impact.
As a global top ten university in London, we use science to try to understand more of the universe and improve the lives of more people in it. Across our 10 campuses and throughout our Imperial Global network, our 23,000 students, 8,000 staff, and partners work together on scientific discovery, innovation and entrepreneurship. Their work navigates some of the world’s toughest challenges in global health, climate change, AI, business leadership and more.
Founded in 1907, Imperial’s future builds on a distinguished past, having pioneered penicillin, holography and fibre optics. Today, Imperial combines exceptional teaching, world-class facilities and a habit of interdisciplinary practice to unlock scientific imagination.
Imperial hosts the NIHR HealthTech Research Centre In Vitro Diagnostics which, as part of the NIHR i4i funding, will generate the required evidence for the ACCelerate™ diagnostic for adoption by the NHS.
About the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Medical Sciences
The MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences (LMS) is a world-leading biomedical research institute working towards understanding the fundamental mechanisms that underlie human health and multimorbidity over our lifetimes. Through its multidisciplinary approach, the institute aims to improve the diagnosis and treatment of diverse conditions such as obesity, heart disease and cancer. The LMS is core-funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC), which is part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and is located at the Imperial London Hammersmith Hospital Campus in West London.
About the NIHR
The mission of the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) is to improve the health and wealth of the nation through research. We do this by:
NIHR is funded by the Department of Health and Social Care. Its work in low and middle income countries is principally funded through UK international development funding from the UK government.
About SFC Capital
SFC Capital is the UK’s most active seed-stage investor, providing seed capital and support to promising British startups. By combining our leading investment funds with our angel syndicate, we have created a unique model that provides investors with diversified exposure to high-potential SEIS and EIS-qualifying businesses. Since 2012, SFC has invested in over 650 startups and partnered with the likes of British Business Investments to support innovation across all UK regions. To learn more about what we do and see our portfolio, visit sfccapital.com.
About UKI2S
About NG Bio
NG Bio is an early-stage investor and venture builder focused on the development of therapeutics and diagnostics that address patient unmet need across autoimmunity and women’s health.
About Mills & Reeve
Leading UK law firm Mills & Reeve advised IMS Solutions on intellectual property matters and the fundraising.
Honorary Professor
Staff profile of Professor Wiebke Arlt, Honorary Professor at the Department of Metabolism and Systems Science, University of Birmingham.
