The company has been awarded just over SEK 1.2 million to develop a new test utilizing artificial intelligence (AI). The system will pre-sort blood cells to spot subtle changes that occur when blood is frozen and later transfused back into the body.

Alongside WADA’s funding, the company has received support from TAIGA (Centre for Transdisciplinary AI) at Umeå University and the National Bioinformatics Infrastructure Sweden (NBIS) in Lund, it states.

“Only four projects worldwide received funding in this round – and we were awarded the largest sum. WADA’s review describes us as world leaders in the field,” says Professor Christer Malm, founder of ProTest Diagnostics and Professor of Sports Medicine at the Department of Community Medicine and Rehabilitation at Umeå University.

Using an AI system

Over the next year, the firm will recruit two part-time specialists to extract and analyze data from blood samples. The AI system, trialled in partnership with a Japanese company that introduced the method in 2022, will act as a high-precision filter.

“We’ll use biological filtration to separate the blood, then apply AI to sort the cells. This gives us a better chance of finding the ones that show abnormalities,” explains Malm.