Unlocking diagnostic value from biological signals
Canatu explores how extracellular vesicles (EVs), cell-derived nanovesicles carrying molecular information—can be translated into measurable signals using carbon nanotube (CNT) sensor technology. This work is advanced in the Business Finland, funded VALABio project, where research and industry partners collaborate to bring EV-based diagnostics from discovery toward practical measurement solutions.
The University of Oulu VALABio team lead by Professor Seppo Vainio’s, provides research insight into EV dynamics and analytics, how EVs serve as novel humoral, homeostasis controllers and cargo diagnostically valuable molecular types in the body fluids. Canatu in turn focuses on the VALABio project to develop the essentially needed sensor technology solutions to provide means to measure these nanosized EV integrated molecular signals.
Thanks to Canatu technology the field of diagnostics can now take use of these dynamic EV signals, to measure also non-invasively their transmitted disease biomarkers.
Professor Seppo Vainio, University of Oulu
Modern diagnostics have progressed remarkably, but the capacities remain still limited. Routine diagnostics are not conducted rather irregularly, and the biomarker set diagnosed is limited especially when aiming towards preventive or precision medicine. In part due to these diagnostic limitations, cancer can remain to be scored also when the disease has already progressed beyond efficient therapeutic intervention. For better capacities to monitor health and disease development, we do need robust, cost effective, and early disease state depicting diagnostic technologies to save societal costs of the aging populations such as is the case in Finland where disease burden keeps on increasing.
In the VALABio project we envision that merger of the carbon nanotube (CNT) based sensing and extracellular vesicle (EV) potentials will offer a great leap in medical diagnostic. This is because EVs offer a highly rich layer of molecular biological information to depict disease signatures, while the Canatu CNT tools provide a way to translate that complexity into sensitive measurable signal reading technological solution.
Advancing Diagnostic Potential
It is notable that the OMICS tools, the large-scale analytic powers in medical research have provided more power to depict molecular changes in disease progression. At the same time, technology development has started to shift toward real time diagnostics. This is indeed essential to capture progressive recovery of worsening of disease pathologies. We can envision progress towards more continuous, more systemic, and minimally- or non-invasive diagnostics tech solutions to be developed. What this means in practice is, this we can expect to obtain realistic ways to target infections, therapeutic intervention response monitoring openings, and wealth of novel homeostasis control level data. Measurement technology solutions are also getting closer to the patient, via the openings of the citizens’ science.
Such developments have been enabled in part by EVs since EVs have also been noted in the skin. Sweat contains wealth of molecularly loaded EVs. Such EVs are also excreted into other body fluidics such as tears, urine, stool and saliva. Materializing these key diagnostic opportunities requires evidence-based medicine data to connect the EV based ablated to disease progression but also ways to measure such EV associated and depicted molecular signals. These are at present real opportunities where EVs, extracellular vesicles and the carbon nanotube technology-based sensors have attracted much attention.
Towards more powerful diagnostic
Extracellular vesicles (EVs), including exosomes (30-250 nm), are nanosized particles and are released by most if not all cells of the body including cancer cells. EVs transmit a molecular cargo that is thought to reflect the state and origin of the cells. Due to this reason EVs serve to provide a multidimensional signal with also multifaced potential.
Professor Vainio notes, that one key feature and value of EVs for the diagnostic aims is that they, by being natural liposome or lipid nanoparticle-like droplets can indeed transfer loads of molecular signals across various biological barriers even the skin. Given this we can envision that EVs will enable based on our studies in the VALABio project to diagnose such critical events as bacterial or viral infections but maybe many other biological functions.
Turning OMICS biology into readable signals
EVs provide a rich and dynamic layer of biological information, reflecting the state of their cells of origin. However, translating this complexity into practical diagnostics requires sensitive and scalable measurement technologies. CNT-based sensors address this gap by converting biological interactions directly into electrical signals, enabling fast, label-free, and scalable detection even in complex samples
CNTs make it possible to turn subtle biological events into precise electrical signals. CNT-based platforms avoid fluorescent labels and complex optical workflows by translating biological interactions directly into electrical readouts. This supports faster workflows, reduced sample preparation, and scalable measurement, even in complex samples.
Ilkka Varjos, CTO at Canatu
EVs and CNT sensors fit naturally together. EVs carry rich biological information, and CNT sensors offer a practical way to read that information.
New paradigm in diagnostics
The implications extend beyond traditional diagnostics. Because EVs reflect ongoing biological processes, they enable monitoring of infections, treatment responses, and other changes in real time. Early-stage diagnostics means detecting change while it is still emerging, before disease becomes clearly visible. The earlier a change can be identified, the more options there are to act effectively in medical practice. This points toward a shift from episodic testing to continuous, feedback-driven measurement. If EV measurement becomes scalable and reliable, diagnostics may evolve from occasional testing toward continuous, non-invasive monitoring. Instead of focusing on single markers, it could become possible to observe multiple biological systems as integrated, dynamic disease signatures, supporting infection monitoring, treatment evaluation, and understanding of broader biological interactions.
As Vainio highlights, “The real opportunity is not only to detect these signals, but to understand how they reflect ongoing biological processes as they evolve. This needs sensitively and scalable technology like the Canatu CNTs”
The transformation is not only about better tests. It is about moving toward continuous and non-invasive measurements of biology. Extracellular vesicle (EVs) is redefining what can be measured, and carbon nanotube sensors are redefining how it can be measured. Together, they point toward a new diagnostic paradigm—one where biology is no longer accessed only through occasional tests, but understood continuously, as it unfolds by widely used close to real time molecular analyte measures across the lifetime.
