Company Overview#
LMNTIC Biotech is a cancer diagnostics company. Its technology isolates circulating tumor cells (CTCs) — cancer cells that break off a tumor and travel in the bloodstream — from a blood sample. Founded in 2022, the company is based at DGIST (a research university in Korea) and builds on magnetophoretic cell-control technology developed by Prof. Cheol-Gi Kim at DGIST. The goal is to make liquid biopsy — a cancer test that uses a blood sample instead of surgically removing tissue — faster, cheaper, and easier to access than a tissue biopsy.
Technology & Product#
The core product is L:Biopsy, an automated platform built around a single microfluidic chip. It tags the target cells with magnetic particles and then uses a magnetic field to move and sort them one cell at a time — a technique called micro-magnetophoresis. In one automated run from 10 mL of blood, it captures the tumor cells, images them, and recovers about 87% of them while removing nearly all normal blood cells; a high-purity mode is designed to reach over 90% purity for sequencing. The captured cells can then go into genomic sequencing — reading their DNA to spot mutations and possible treatment targets. The run takes about four hours, needs no centrifuge, and uses a benchtop device that costs a fraction of existing CTC-isolation systems.
Market & Use Cases#
The platform is built for research labs, hospitals, and cancer centers that need a reliable way to isolate CTCs. They use it to count and characterize tumor cells, track how a patient responds to treatment, and support research that moves lab findings toward the clinic. It is positioned as a lower-cost option and can be used alongside tissue biopsies and ctDNA tests (which look for tumor DNA in the blood). For now it is a research-use-only tool, so it fits early-stage cancer studies and biomarker work rather than routine clinical care.
Traction & References#
LMNTIC was selected for TIPS in 2022 and completed seed funding the same year, with a lab-startup grant and follow-on investment reported afterward(Hankyung). The company joined the IBK Changgong Guro 13th cohort(Hankyung). It won an Excellence Award at the 2025 Science and Technology Specialized University startup investment competition run with KAIST, GIST, DGIST, UNIST, POSTECH, and KDB(ETNews). Founder Donghwan Ryu was named to the Forbes Korea 30 Under 30 list in 2025(Forbes Korea). The company also runs joint R&D with the Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital Bio Core Facility and holds Korean venture company certification and a corporate research institute(LMNTIC).
Collaboration Relevance#
LMNTIC is a good match for cancer centers and research groups that need very pure CTC samples to validate their work in patients. Its roots at DGIST and its ongoing hospital partnership open clear paths for joint studies. For drug companies, the platform can help build companion diagnostics (CDx) — tests that help pick the right targeted therapy for a patient — and co-develop CTC-based markers, which fits the company’s stated interest in research and CDx partnerships.