The startup has been established to commercialize a technology enabling ultra-sensitive detection of proteins at the single-molecule level. The company aims to transform early disease diagnostics by making previously invisible biological signals measurable from minimal blood samples.

“For decades, diagnostics has been limited not by biology, but by what our instruments can detect,” says Prateek Singh, CEO and co-founder of Proteins.1 and inventor of the core technology. “The body produces early warning signals long before disease becomes visible. Our mission is to make those signals measurable and actionable, years earlier than today.”

Related article

Taking R&D to the next level

Finnadvance’s platform can speed up drug and vaccine development, and reduce the need for animal studies.

Built on research conducted at VTT

The company is built on research conducted at VTT and further validated through European Union breakthrough innovation funding. US and Finnish patents have been granted, with additional international applications pending.

The core innovation was first discovered at VTT in 2018 and later independently replicated through EU-funded research collaborations. The platform replaces enzymatic signal amplification with a physics-based magnetic cycling mechanism that repeatedly reads a single captured protein molecule, accumulating signal clarity without increasing background noise.

Initially, the company will focus on research-use-only (RUO) applications in oncology, neurology, and immunology, before progressing toward regulated clinical diagnostics.

“Early detection dramatically improves survival rates in diseases such as cancer and neurodegenerative disorders,” says Singh. “If we can detect disease at the molecular stage rather than the symptomatic stage, we entirely change treatment possibilities.”

EUR 4.7 million in pre-seed funding

Proteins.1 has secured EUR 4.7 million in pre-seed funding, led by Lifeline Ventures and Cloudberry Ventures, with additional in-kind support from VTT and Business Finland.