Strand Life Sciences, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries Limited, has secured an Indian patent for its integrated platform designed to enable early cancer detection through cell-free DNA (cfDNA) analysis using a blood sample.
The patented platform combines high-quality sequencing, rigorous quality control, biologically informed methylation and fragmentomic feature extraction, and machine learning. The technology is designed to detect cancer and predict the tissue of origin from a blood sample.
Changes in methylation patterns across the genome are a recognised hallmark of cancer. A key innovation covered by the patent is the ability to obtain these methylation patterns through genome sequencing with minimal loss or failure, supporting sensitive early cancer detection.
India is estimated to record more than 1.5 million new cancer cases annually, with a significant number of patients diagnosed at advanced stages. Early detection can help identify cancer at stages when treatment options and outcomes may be better. However, existing guideline-recommended screening programmes cover only a limited number of cancer types and can be difficult to scale.
Strand Life Sciences believes that declining sequencing costs, combined with its patented platform, could support wider adoption of early cancer detection without requiring significant expansion of local diagnostic infrastructure.
“Early detection is an increasingly relevant topic as cancer is becoming one of India’s greatest public health challenges. This patent reflects our commitment to developing scientifically rigorous, AI-enabled liquid biopsy technologies that can help detect cancer earlier from a simple blood sample,” said Ramesh Hariharan, CEO, Strand Life Sciences.
“We believe this innovation represents an important step towards making precision cancer screening more accurate, scalable and accessible,” he added.
The patent strengthens Strand Life Sciences’ intellectual property portfolio in liquid biopsy and supports its strategy of developing integrated, AI-enabled molecular technologies for early cancer detection and precision oncology.
