Epi One

Epi One wants to help doctors diagnose cancer earlier, more easily, and more accurately.

The cancer-diagnosis market is massive. In the U.S. alone, it’s projected to be a seventy-billion-dollar market by 2032. Why so large?

Because diagnosing cancer is the key to treating it. And perhaps surprisingly, many cancers are treatable when caught early.

The problem is that traditional detection methods like MRIs, lab tests, and biopsies are expensive and inaccurate. Furthermore, they can take days, weeks, or even months to generate results. And this delay can make the difference between life and death for a patient.

Take a closer look at the current detection methods:

Imaging costs as much as $10,000, and has a high false-positive rate. Lab tests can cost as much as $8,000 a piece, and require weeks to receive results.

Biopsies are the most expensive tests — upwards of $20,000 — and aren’t standardized across different types of cancers. And liquid biopsies, while affordable, can be wildly inaccurate.

Driven by the loss of his first wife and mother to cancer, Epi One CEO Michael Marquardt — at one time Chairman of the American Cancer Society’s Board of Directors — decided to create an alternative-testing method.

This company has created a simple diagnostic kit that enables early cancer detection, post-diagnosis monitoring, and prognosis assessment. All it takes is a single blood draw and the use of a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, a method widely used to make copies of a specific DNA sample rapidly, enabling scientists and doctors to make faster, more accurate diagnoses.

Results from Epi One’s test can be had in just six hours. And accuracy rates include more than ninety-five percent accuracy for tissue tests and more than seventy percent for early cancer blood tests.

To make money, Epi One will initially provide laboratory-developed tests to clinics and hospitals. Then, it aims to receive FDA approval to make these tests available to patients for just $500.

Epi One has raised more than three million dollars from angel investors and the company aims to begin generating revenue soon.

Team Background

Michael Marquardt - CEO and Board Member

Michael is a seasoned tech executive with experience in the medical field. He was also the Chairman of the American Cancer Society’s Board of Directors.

In addition to his role with Epi One, he is CEO of Global Kompass Strategies, a management-consulting firm. He’s also a member of the Board of Directors with Nantero, a nanotechnology-research company, and a member of the U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad, a position to which he was appointed by President Joe Biden in 2022.

Earlier in his career, Michael was an advisor with CSC, a provider of business and legal brand services. Before that, he was President of Freeh Group International, a risk-management firm. He spent seven years as CEO and Co-Founder of MediGuide International, a healthcare company offering second opinions to those diagnosed with cancer.

He earned a Bachelor’s degree in Biology from the University of New England and a Master’s degree in Chemistry from the University of Virginia.

Sophia Fang - Co-Founder & President

After earning a Ph.D. in Bioinformatics from Iowa State University and an MD from Harbin Medical University in China, Sophia spent four years as a postdoctoral researcher at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

From there, she was a research associate at Joan & Sanford Weill Medical College at Cornell University, before starting Epi One in June 2016.

Neng Yang - Co-Founder & Vice President

Before starting Epi One, Neng was a research fellow at Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, where she pioneered single-cell sorting for leukemia and researched CAR T-cell therapy for lung cancer. Before that, she was a postdoctoral fellow at Weill Cornell Medicine.

She earned a Ph.D. in Immunology from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China and an MD from Guangdong Medical College.

Co-Investors