AQ Biotech

12/08/2025

Two weeks, more than 700 urine samples, and over 120,000 measurement points 🔥

In July, our team joined forces with researchers from Shanghai and Nanjing. Together, we replicated years of learnings from our Finnish prostate cancer studies.

The results will help confirm that our phage-biosensor technology works across genetic backgrounds, diets, and environments, which is the vital next step in validating our phage-biosensors for prostate cancer detection.

🔗 Read more about our trip and what’s next

Aqsens Health’s team traveled to Shanghai to conduct prostate cancer analyses in collaboration with research teams from Nanjing and Shanghai. The goal of the trip was to analyze a large, well-designed urine sample cohort using the latest phage-biosensors. This collaboration combines Finnish biotec...

19/06/2025

Happy Midsummer from Aqsens Health! ☀️

Midsummer, or juhannus in Finnish, is a beloved celebration in Finland that brings together family, friends, nature, good food, and of course, the sauna. In the northern parts of Finland, it’s also the perfect time to admire the magical midnight sun.

Whether you're spending Midsummer in the city or surrounded by nature, the Aqsens team wishes everyone a relaxing and sunny holiday!🌅

03/06/2025

Welcome to the team, Raakel! 💜

We’re delighted to have Raakel Lehmusmäki join Aqsens Health as our summer employee. Currently finalizing her MSc (Tech.) in Biotechnology at the yliopisto - University of Turku, she brings a strong academic background and curiosity that fits in perfectly with our work in biosensor technology 🔬

This summer, Raakel will be supporting our lab operations and gaining hands-on experience in the world of phage-biosensors. We’re excited to be part of her professional journey!

15/05/2025

💬 What does “bifunctional” mean when talking about Aqsens’ biosensors?

Aqsens’ phage-biosensors are bifunctional, meaning that they are engineered to do two tasks simultaneously in a biosensing system. These two functions may be carried out by different phages within the biosensor. Both of these tasks are important in ensuring that the biosensor delivers accurate information in a way that can be easily interpreted.

💡What are the two functions that make up a bifunctional biosensor?

❕Target recognition: the first function the phage-biosensor is engineered to do is to recognize disease targets. These targets are usually molecules that indicate the presence of a disease, such as biomarkers.

❕Signal modulation: the second function of the biosensor is to interact with a color dye that we refer to as a reporter dye.

💡Why is the second function necessary, if the first function already recognizes the disease?

Even though a biosensor can successfully detect a disease target (function 1), it still does not create anything we can measure.

That’s where signal modulation (function 2) comes into play.

When both the disease target and reporter dye are interacting in a sample solution, the reporter dye’s color intensity changes. The same change in color intensity does not occur when there are no disease targets to interact with. This signal modulation makes it possible for us to measure the detection event between the phage and the disease targets in a sample.

True to its name, the reporter dye 'reports' the binding event by producing a detectable signal, which we can measure.

05/05/2025

Every May, the World Bladder Cancer Patient Coalition shines a light on bladder cancer and highlights the importance of awareness and early detection in improving patient outcomes. 📢

We also wanted to do our part in raising awareness by gathering some bladder cancer facts and by discussing the importance of early detection in more detail👇

Go to our blog to read the blog post “Why bladder cancer gets missed and why that needs to change” to learn how you can also take part in this year’s Bladder Cancer Awareness month.

Here’s a link to the blog post 💬
www.aqsens.com/news-and-blog/why-bladder-cancer-gets-missed-and-why-that-needs-to-change-bladder-cancer-awareness-month-2025

30/04/2025

🎈Hyvää vappua! | Glada vappen! | Happy May Day! 🎈

The celebration of Vappu, or first of May, has its roots in the Middle Ages. Nowadays in Finland, it’s among the most popular holidays along with Christmas and Midsummer. Vappu is known as the day of the workers, as well as the day of the students, and celebrations usually begin on Vappu’s Eve (the last day of April).

During these few days, especially in university cities like Turku where we’re also located, you’re bound to see thousands of people wearing their black and white graduation caps, kids with colorful vappu-balloons, and families having a pick-nick by the Aura river or in a park.

Whether you’re in Finland or elsewhere in the world, our team wants to wish you a happy Vappu!🎊