JaxBio and the EIC Accelerator: A $60 Blood Test for Lung Cancer

JaxBio Technologies, based in Netanya, Israel, and co-founded by chief executive Shahar Zirkin and Tel Aviv University professor Yuval Ebenstein, is developing a blood test that detects cancer from chemical marks, called methylation, on DNA that tumour cells shed into the blood. Instead of sequencing that DNA, it labels methylated sites with a fluorescent tag and reads them on a standard microarray chip. Its EIC Accelerator project, LUMEN, "Innovative liquid biopsy method using lab-on-a-chip technology for cancer diagnosis and management", receives an EU contribution of €2,493,000 and runs from November 2024 to October 2026, according to CORDIS. The report states the overall objective as bringing forward "a CE and FDA-approved diagnostic platform" for early lung cancer detection, according to CORDIS.

In June 2026 the method was published in npj Precision Oncology. In 103 participants, 51 with stage II to IV lung cancer and 52 healthy controls, the classifier achieved 93.1% sensitivity at 90.3% specificity in a blinded validation set of 60 samples, at an estimated research cost of about $60 per sample and a turnaround of two to three days, according to npj Precision Oncology and JaxBio. The paper credits the EIC grant. No stage I patients were in the published study.

Where JaxBio Stands Now

JaxBio's lung cancer study at Sheba Medical Center started in May 2025, plans 300 participants and is due to complete its primary data collection in November 2026, according to ClinicalTrials.gov. The EIC report says study approvals and initiation are in place at five medical centres in Israel and Europe. JaxBio's website lists a team of 16. As a private Israeli company, its accounts are not public.

The Technology: Reading Cancer DNA With Light

Existing liquid biopsy tests mainly rely on mutation or sequencing assays, which the EIC report calls costly and insensitive in early disease. JaxBio converts and amplifies the cell-free DNA, uses an engineered enzyme to attach fluorescent labels to originally methylated sites, and hybridises it to a microarray. Ebenstein says an array measures signal from tens of thousands of copies of each target, against 30 to 100 copies in sequencing. The EIC report says a panel of about 200 markers achieved over 90% accuracy and detects stage I and II cancer; the published study covers 170 regions and stage II to IV only, so the early-stage claim has not been shown in peer-reviewed data.

What the EIC Award Promised, and What the Record Shows

The EIC project ends in October 2026, so it is too early to judge it. It has produced a custom chip, an algorithm, a publication and a running clinical study. A CE-IVDR or FDA submission is described in the report as a future step, not a project result.

1. Custom chip and algorithmDeliveredProject report.
2. Peer-reviewed validationPartialStage II to IV only.
3. Clinical studyRecruitingNCT06963307.
4. CE and FDA approvalNot filedFuture step.

The Money

When the EIC award was announced in July 2024, JaxBio said it came with the option of up to €9.1 million more from the EU, matched by €9.1 million from other investors, according to JaxBio. No EIC Fund investment or private round has been announced since. The CEO said then that biotech investment was scarce, "especially in Israel". JaxBio's net share of the SANGUINE blood cancer project is €1,771,875, according to CORDIS.

What Cannot Be Checked

Why Europe Should Care

Lung cancer kills about 1.8 million people a year, the EIC report notes, and most cases are found late. A test costing about $60 could make blood-based screening affordable for European health systems. The value depends on detecting early-stage cancer, which is exactly the claim not yet proven in published data.

The Verdict

JaxBio and the EIC have not been asked for comment for this article. It is based entirely on public records and published statements, linked throughout.