Capturing, reading, and extracting a single cancer cell from the blood on one chip… Targeting post-surgical recurrence monitoring

A DGIST startup is building a one-chip system to find and recover rare cancer cells from blood.

Image: National Institute of Standards and Technology / Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain

Source: MoneyToday, written by Wooyoung Choi (October 12, 2026). AI-generated summary by biochip.com, published . Not independently reviewed.

Key takeaways

  • LMNTIC BIOTECH's L:Biopsy captures, identifies, and recovers circulating tumor cells on a single chip for post-surgical recurrence monitoring.
  • In 10 mL blood spiked with breast cancer cell lines, the company reported about 72% cell recovery and first imaging in four hours.
  • Clinical validation with patient blood is underway, but the reported recovery result comes from cell-line spiking rather than patient samples.

LMNTIC BIOTECH, a student-founded startup from the Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology, has developed L:Biopsy, a tabletop device designed to capture, identify, and recover circulating tumor cells from blood on a single chip. The intended first use is monitoring for cancer recurrence after surgery, when rare remaining cancer cells could signal that disease has returned. By keeping cells on the chip for staining and imaging rather than transferring them between instruments, the company aims to reduce cell losses that can undermine single-cell analysis. It is now pursuing clinical validation with patient blood at domestic tertiary general hospitals.

A one-device workflow for rare cells

Circulating tumor cells, or CTCs, are cancer cells that have detached from a tumor and entered the bloodstream. Finding them is difficult because they can be extremely rare among the enormous number of normal blood cells. L:Biopsy is intended to capture these cells, label them with stains that help identify them, image them, and then retrieve selected cells for further analysis.

Think of the system as a sorting station that does not require its most valuable packages to be passed from conveyor belt to conveyor belt. Conventional CTC workflows can separate cells and then move them onto glass slides or other equipment for imaging and analysis. LMNTIC BIOTECH instead fixes captured cells on its chip, where staining and readout occur before cells are recovered for protein or genomic analysis.

The micro-magnetic cell circuit

The platform uses what the company calls a micro-magnetic cell circuit. Cells attach to magnetic beads, then move through microscopic magnetic structures arranged in a pattern inspired by semiconductor circuits. Those structures transport, trap, and extract individual cells.

Professor Kim Chul-gi of DGIST invented the underlying technology. LMNTIC BIOTECH said it obtained related registered patents in Korea and the United States in February and March through an ownership transfer rather than a licensing agreement.

Early performance and clinical plans

In a company-reported test, breast cancer cell lines were added to 10 milliliters of whole blood. L:Biopsy recovered about 72% of those cells, a result the company compared with a 73% literature value for Food and Drug Administration-certified equipment. The system produced its first image about four hours after blood collection and did not require centrifugation, the spinning process commonly used to separate blood components.

The device is designed as a single tabletop unit weighing about 50 kilograms. LMNTIC BIOTECH contrasts that format with competing setups that use two or three separate units, arguing that a single integrated system could be easier to install and standardize in clinical laboratories.

Why This Matters

Post-surgical monitoring depends on detecting traces of cancer that may remain after treatment, a situation often called minimal residual disease, or MRD. A blood-based method that preserves rare cells could give clinicians material for both detection and molecular analysis, including protein and genetic features that may point to therapeutic targets.

That promise still requires validation in samples from patients, where real-world blood contains biological variation that cell-line spiking tests cannot fully reproduce. LMNTIC BIOTECH plans to sell research equipment and chips and provide contract analysis for pharmaceutical companies before seeking broader testing services, insurance reimbursement, and FDA approval. The startup has raised a cumulative 500 million won and is raising a 3 billion won Pre-Series A round as it moves toward clinical use.

LMNTIC BIOTECH is also scheduled to compete in the finals of the fifth K-Deep Tech Startup King of Kings competition at COEX in Seoul on October 30, 2026. The next important test for L:Biopsy will be whether its integrated workflow can deliver consistent performance with patient samples in hospital settings.

Topics: Cancer

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