In Europe, as in much of the world, a breast cancer diagnosis often carries a heavy burden beyond the disease itself: uncertainty. For thousands of women, particularly in public health systems, the question of whether chemotherapy is necessary can linger for weeks.
Genomic tests to predict cancer recurrence (hence guide the necessity for chemotherapy) exist, but access is limited. These tests, most often shipped to the US, cost around $4,000 and take up to three weeks for results. For patients, this delay feels like awaiting a verdict on their future.
What if that decision could be made in hours, using equipment already in hospitals?
That’s the vision driving Celestin de Wergifosse, the 29-year-old Belgian bioengineer behind Signatur Biosciences. In May 2025, his London-based startup announced a $7 million seed round, led by IBA’s Discovery Lab and backed by Belgian firm Noshaq, bringing total funding to $10 million.
This capital is fueling the development of OncoSignatur Breast, a decentralized prognostic test for breast cancer that delivers same-day results at a fraction of the current cost, positioning Signatur Biosciences at the forefront of Europe’s precision diagnostics movement.
De Wergifosse, fresh from a transformative stint at Silicon Valley’s Y Combinator accelerator, isn’t just riding the biotech wave. He’s pioneering a diagnostic infrastructure that’s local, fast, and affordable, bringing genomic medicine to underserved communities.
“When we spun out of our university lab (The Stevens Group), we were not quite researchers anymore, and not yet a company,” he recalls. “Y Combinator helped us become a startup, no longer a university research project.”
Reflecting on validating their idea, he says, “One of the biggest challenges for early founders is finding traction. Initially, we tried to embrace too much, but we then focused on the most critical test that needed to change.”
Customer feedback was pivotal: “It’s only the customers who tell you if your technology is great. Talking to oncologists, pathologists, and patients was crucial to validate our idea.”
“The best thing about Y Combinator,” de Wergifosse adds, “is the value during and after the program. The mentorship, network, and clarity it brings don’t stop.”
This clarity has propelled Signatur Biosciences forward, but de Wergifosse’s mission has deeper roots.
De Wergifosse’s drive for innovation began at 10, during a 2006 family trip to rural Niger. Witnessing households without electricity and children studying by candlelight, he returned to Belgium and built a couple years later an ecological mobile generator, earning the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Best Young Inventor Award.
By 15, being underage, he secured a royal exemption to launch his first company.
Years later, while studying bioengineering at Imperial College London, he met Dr John Goertz. Both were frustrated by the gap between scientific breakthroughs and real-world access, especially in precision diagnostics, where life-altering decisions depend on costly, centralized testing.
With world renowned materials scientist and Professor Dame Molly Stevens, they founded Signatur Biosciences in 2022, aiming to create low-cost molecular diagnostics using standard qPCR machines equipment already common in hospitals worldwide. Their first focus: breast cancer.
The chemotherapy conundrum
Despite decades of research, a stark reality persists in breast cancer treatment: over half of patients prescribed chemotherapy don’t benefit from it. The treatment’s toll, nausea, hair loss, weakened immunity, emotional distress, is immense, often without improving survival.
Prognostic tests, which analyze tumor biology to predict recurrence, help avoid unnecessary chemotherapy, but they’re inaccessible for many, especially in low- and middle-income countries or underinsured populations in the US and Europe.
Signatur’s innovation, called PCRchitectur, simplifies this process. It transforms complex, multi-step genomic testing into a single reaction on a qPCR machine, a standard tool for amplifying and detecting DNA.
“We developed new biomolecular methods that lets standard PCR machines analyze larger gene panels, turning complex diagnostics into simple tests hospitals can run with existing equipment,” de Wergifosse explains.
“The biggest challenge was engineering the molecular reaction for our prototype which we’re now turning it into a usable kit.”
OncoSignatur Breast delivers results in hours, not weeks, and allows hospitals to test in-house, eliminating reliance on expensive third-party labs. By reducing material costs up to multiple fold, Signatur Biosciences makes testing affordable, opening markets ignored by traditional biotech.
“Most precision diagnostics are US-based, but European countries won’t pay $4,000 for a test,” de Wergifosse notes. “Our main competitor generates 90% of their revenue in the US. We’re opening new markets with affordable, local solutions.”
Success isn’t guaranteed. Regulatory approval is the next hurdle, with Signatur Biosciences developing its test for submission. Scaling globally means navigating diverse health systems and entrenched interests.
Integrating OncoSignatur Breast into local hospitals and global health systems will require navigating regulatory hurdles, diverse care pathways, and entrenched interests.
By leveraging existing hospital infrastructure, the startup is poised to make precision diagnostics a reality for millions, proving that innovation can be both groundbreaking and accessible.
For aspiring innovators, he offers hard-earned wisdom: “Barriers like money, time, or knowledge are always there, at any age. Don’t wait, just start.”
He also emphasizes the power of community: “Entrepreneurs should support each other with strategy, fundraising, and connections. London’s ecosystem is strong, and we need to keep lifting each other up.”
