HAWK Biosystems

HAWK Biosystems are a deep-tech biotechnology company based in Spain who were spun out of the Francis Crick Institute and Cancer Research UK. HAWK have developed the platform technology, QF-Pro® (Quantifiable Functional Proteomics), which can spatially quantify protein-protein interactions and protein post-translational modifications at an unprecedented resolution and sensitivity, yielding deep insights into patient pathology samples, particularly in the domain of immuno-oncology. 

QF-Pro® enables the analysis and quantification of a novel family of biologically relevant biomarkers - protein functions within the TME - opening brand new avenues for improving the precision medicine agenda.  Assays performed with QF-Pro® are easily customisable to provide insights into any biomarker(s), with a strategy to develop ad-hoc targeted CDx solutions in cooperation with drug development or diagnostics companies.

Showcasing the power of QF-Pro®, we have recently validated a breakthrough QF-Pro®-based assay to predict patient response to immune checkpoint inhibition therapies (atezolizumab, nivolumab, durvalumab) in NSCLC. The results of this validation were published in Feb-2023 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology (https://ascopubs.org/doi/pdf/10.1200/JCO.22.01748) and showed astonishing outcomes: using QF-Pro® to stratify patients for these therapies could increase response rates by 280%, when compared to the current gold standard marker PD-L1 TPS. Our next steps in the commercialisation strategy of QF-Pro® is to take this application through a large cohort (n>1000) clinical trial to gain IVD-R CE approval from the FDA and EMA to allow us to deploy this technology into a clinical setting. Moreover, we will open up a new family of functional immune-oncology biomarkers which will also be poised to undergo clinical trial.